Don Eigler: »Nanotechnology. Shaping the world at the atomic scale«

Dr. Don Eigler is one of the world's leading researchers in the field of nanotechnology. In 1989, using a scanning tunnel microscope he had developed himself, he discovered the possibility of shifting individual atoms and arranging them in new structures. In an experiment which has since become renowned, Eigler arranged 35 Xenon atoms into the name of the US company IBM, for which he has worked since 1986. Since the 1989 experiment, IBM has intensified research work in the field of nanotechnology, with the aim of developing new, extremely miniaturized data chips and computing units.

Don Eigler studied at the University of California in San Diego, where in 1975 he took a Bachelor’s degree in physics, followed by a PhD in 1985. After graduating, he worked at the research labs of AT&T Bell before switching to IBM. Eigler is today a fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1990 he received the Grand Award for Science and Technology from the magazine Popular Science, in 1993/94, the Newcomb Cleveland Prize from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in 1995, in Göttingen, the Dannie Heinemann Prize from the Academy of Sciences and in 1999, was the first scientist to receive the Nanoscience Prize at the 5th International Conference on Atomically Controlled Surfaces, Interfaces and Nanostructures [ACSIN] in Aix-en-Provence.