Erwin Müller
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Erwin Wilhelm Müller or Erwin Wilhelm Mueller (June 13, 1911, in Berlin – May 17, 1977, in Washington D.C.) was a German-born physicist who invented the field emission microscope, the field ion microscope, and the atom probe. He was the first person to experimentally observe atoms.
Müller studied at the Technical University in Berlin, under Gustav Hertz. He received his degree in engineering in 1935 and his doctorate in 1936. Müller worked at the Siemens Research Laboratory, where he invented the field emission microscope in 1936. He also worked at the Stabilovolt Company, the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry, and the Free University of Berlin before taking a teaching appointment at the Technical University in Berlin in 1950. He joined the faculty at Penn State University in 1952, where he remained until his death. It was at Penn State that Müller invented the field ion microscope (which was the first instrument used to observe atoms) and the atom probe.
He married Klara Thüssing in 1939, and their only daughter Jutta was born in 1940. He survived the firebombing of Dresden.
[edit] Honors
- National Medal of Science (1977)
- Achievement Award of the Instrument Society of America (1960)
- Davisson-Germer Prize of the American Physical Society (1972)
- C. F. Gauss Medal
- John Scott Medal of the City of Philadelphia (1970)
- Scientific Member, Fritz-Haber Institute (1957)
- Honorary Degree, Free University of Berlin
- Honorary Degree, University of Lyon
