Magnet Academy: Gerd Binnig

Gerd Binnig co-developed the scanning tunneling microscope (STM) with Heinrich Rohrer. The STM allowed scientists entry into the atomic world in a new way and was a major advance in the field of nanotechnology. For their achievement, they received the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physics, along with Ernst Ruska, inventor of the electron microscope. Binnig also developed the first atomic force microscope for studying materials on an atomic scale.