Calvin Forrest Quate (December 7, 1923 – July 6, 2019) was an Americanelectrical engineer and physicist best known for his contributions to microscopy. He was on the faculty ofStanford University from 1961 until his retirement in 2004.^[1]

He earned his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from theUniversity of Utah College of Engineering in 1944, and his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1950.^[2]

Quate is known for his work on acoustic and atomic force microscopy. Thescanning acoustic microscope, which Quate invented with colleague R. A. Lemons in 1973,^[3] has resolution exceeding optical microscopes, revealing structure in opaque or even transparent materials not visible to optics.

In 1981, Quate read about a new type of microscope able to examine electrically conductive materials. Together withGerd Binnig andChristoph Gerber, he developed a related instrument that would work on non-conductive materials, including biological tissue, and theatomic force microscope was born.^[4] AFM traces surface contours using a needle to maintain constant pressure against the surface to reveal atomic detail.^[5] AFM is the foundation of the $100 million nanotechnology industry. Binnig, Quate and Gerber were rewarded with theKavli Prize in 2016 for developing the atomic force microscope.

Quate was a member of theNational Academy of Engineering andNational Academy of Sciences. He was awarded the 1980IEEE Morris N. Liebmann Memorial Award and theIEEE Medal of Honor in 1988 for "the invention and development of the scanning acoustic microscope."^[6] Quate became a senior research fellow at thePalo Alto Research Center (PARC) in 1984.^[6] In 2000, he became a recipient of theJoseph F. Keithley Award For Advances in Measurement Science. He was a fellow of theNorwegian Academy of Science and Letters.^[7] Quate died on July 6, 2019, at the age of 95.^[8][9]

• Obituary Stanford University
• IEEE History Center biography

• 1923 births
• 2019 deaths
• People from White Pine County, Nevada
• Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
• American inventors
• American electrical engineers
• Foreign members of the Royal Society
• IEEE Medal of Honor recipients
• Fellows of the IEEE
• National Medal of Science laureates
• University of Utah alumni
• Stanford University School of Engineering faculty
• Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering
• Fellows of the Royal Microscopical Society
• Scientists at PARC (company)
• Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
• Kavli Prize laureates in Nanoscience
• American nanotechnologists
• American microwave engineers
• American acoustical engineers
• Radiophysicists

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