Christoph Gerber

Christoph Gerber is a Swiss professor of physics and Director for Scientific Communication of the National Center of Competence for Nanoscale Science at the University of Basel, where he has been since 2004.

Christoph Gerber is the co-inventor of the atomic force microscope. Born in Basel, Switzerland, on 15 May 1942, he was among the 250 most cited living physicists in the world in the year 2000.

Christoph Gerber is a titular professor at the Department of Physics, University of Basel, Switzerland. He was a founding member and director for scientific communication of the NCCR (National Center of Competence in Research Nanoscale Science). He was formerly a research staff member in nanoscale science at the IBM Research Laboratory in Rueschlikon, Switzerland, and has served as a project leader in various programs of the Swiss National Science Foundation.

After his PhD, Gerber moved to Sweden and in 1964 became group leader in research and development for the company Contraves. In 1966 he moved to IBM Research in Zürich, with which he remained associated until 2004; in the 1980s he also worked temporarily at IBM Almaden and at the IBM physics group in Munich. In the early 1980s he worked with Gerd Binnig, Heinrich Rohrer and Edmund Weibel on the development of the scanning tunnelling microscope. He then continued his collaboration with Binnig, and while at IBM Almaden the two scientists, in collaboration with Calvin Quate from Stanford University, realized the atomic force microscope.

In the last 30 years he has continued to explore the possibility of using scanning probes as imaging, manipulation and diagnostic tools. He is particularly interested in developing biochemical sensors based on atomic force microscopy.

He has received numerous awards for his work, including the Science Award of the City of Basel, Switzerland, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the science journal Nature, and he is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, of the World Technology Network and of the Institute of Physics, UK.