Nanotechnology owes its birth to Don Eigler who on this day 20 year’s ago, as an IBM fellow, became the first person to manipulate atoms.

Having built a custom scanning tunneling microscope (STM), based on the 1986 Nobel Prize winning work of Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer, Don Eigler discovered that he was able to manipulate atoms. Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer\'s STM was designed to visualise atoms but Eigler\'s invention of a low temperature ultra high vacuum STM is what allowed him to position individual atoms with atomic precision.

Shortly after discovering that his the STM microscope could be used to manipulate atoms, Eigler showcased the power of his custom STM by spelling out the letters “IBM” with 35 xenon atoms on November 11, 1989.

Images: IBM