The electron microscope on the eve of its first centenary

Abstract

In a few years’ time, the electron microscope will be 100 years old. The ideas leading to the invention of the instrument emerged in Berlin between 1928 and 1933. Ernst Ruska is the undisputed inventor of the transmission electron microscope. In the mid-1930s, scientists from several European countries and especially from the United States, France, Canada and Japan became interested in contributing to the new technology. Ernst Ruska was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physics for his invention.