Helmut Ruska

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Memorial plaque on the house, Rahel-Hirsch-Weg, in Berlin-Mitte
Gravestone for Ernst Ruska & Helmut Ruska at the forest cemetery in Zehlendorf

Helmut Philipp Georg Ruska (born June 7, 1908 in Heidelberg ; † August 30, 1973 in Düsseldorf ) was a German physician and pioneer of electron microscopy .

Life

Helmut Ruska was born as the son of the orientalist Julius Ruska (1867–1949) and Elisabeth Ruska, b. Merx (1874–1945), born. From 1927 to 1932 he studied medicine in Munich , Innsbruck , Berlin and Heidelberg . He did his doctorate with Ludolf von Krehl . From 1936 he worked as an assistant to Richard Siebeck (1883-1965) at the First Medical Clinic of the Charité in Berlin, where he acquired his specialist in internal medicine in 1940 , and from 1943 at the Medical Clinic in Heidelberg. In the same year he completed his habilitation in Berlin with a thesis on the morphology of bacteriophages .

Between 1938 and 1945 Helmut Ruska was head of the laboratory for applied electron microscopy at Siemens & Halske AG , Berlin-Spandau, from 1944 Insel Riems . In 1939 there was a first comprehensive publication on the structure of viruses (Arch. Ges. Virusforsch. 1: 155-69), in 1943 he proposed the taxonomy of viruses according to morphological criteria (Arch. Ges. Virusforsch. 2: 480-98).

From 1948 to 1951 Ruska was a professor with a teaching position at Berlin University, head of the department for micromorphology at the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin-Buch and at the Max Planck Institute for physical chemistry and electro-chemistry in Berlin-Dahlem. From 1952 to 1958 he was head of the Department of Micromorphology at the New York State Department of Health while also working at the Sloan Kettering Institute for Cancer Research and as an Associate Professor at Union University in Albany (New York) . From 1958 Ruska was director of the Institute for Biophysics and Electron Microscopy at the Medical Academy in Düsseldorf, which was converted into the University of Düsseldorf in 1965 .

Helmut Ruska was married twice and had three sons. Erdmann Ruska is his son from his second marriage.

Helmut Ruska is buried next to his brother Ernst Ruska in the forest cemetery (grave site Dept. XX-AW 51) in Berlin-Zehlendorf .

plant

Ruska is considered to be the pioneer of medical-life science electron microscopy . Together with his brother Ernst Ruska and his brother-in-law Bodo von Borries , he developed the electron microscope to readiness for series production, in particular promoting the use of the new technology for the clarification of biomedical questions. He was the world's first scientist to make viruses visible and laid the foundations for the virus taxonomy that still exists today . His work on the fine structure of molecules , organelles and cells (e.g. fibrin in blood clotting , glycogen storage , plant chlorophyll , bacteria , epithelial , muscle, sensory and blood cells) was groundbreaking.

Awards and memberships

In 1956 Ruska received the Aronson Prize in Berlin.

In 1962 he was appointed an External Scientific Member at the Fritz Haber Institute by the Max Planck Society .

In 1970 the physician received the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize together with his brother Ernst Ruska .

In 1973 he was elected a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina .

literature

Web links

Commons : Helmut Ruska  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Member entry of Helmut Ruska at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on June 23, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Ruska, Helmut
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ruska, Helmut Philipp Georg
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German physician and pioneer of electron microscopy
DATE OF BIRTH June 7, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Heidelberg
DATE OF DEATH August 30, 1973
Place of death Dusseldorf