Prof. Ing. Armin Delong, DrSc. (born 1925 in Bartovice near Ostrava; died 2017 in Brno) was a world-renowned physicist and founder of Czechoslovak electron microscopy. Until 1989 he was the director of the Institute of Scientific Instruments of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Brno and an academician. After November 1989, he served as Deputy Prime Minister of the Czechoslovak Republic for Scientific Development.
His ancestors were French Huguenots who fled religious persecution in Silesia and Moravia at the end of the 16th century. Armin attended the grammar school in Hranice during the WW2 years. During his studies he showed a special interest in technical subjects. He devoted himself to aeronautical modelling and the construction of radios and radio receivers. After the end of the Nazi occupation, he began to study electrical engineering at the Brno University of Technology. In his diploma thesis he designed an electron microscope together with his talented classmates.
He constructed the very first Czechoslovak electron microscope in 1949, consisting of five thousand components. The then Czechoslovak Republic was the fifth country in the world to produce electron microscopes. Their production was the backbone of a national enterprise called Tesla and brought millions of foreign exchange earnings to the Czechoslovak state.
Armin Delong was the founder of Czechoslovak electron microscopy and devoted sixty years to the research and development of electron microscopes. Later, he focused on low-energy transmission electron microscopy, which was mainly used in biology. He was the recipient of the gold medal of the 1958 EXPO World Exhibition for the prototype of the BS242 electron microscope, the City of Brno Prize 2000, the Czechoslovak Microscopy Society Prize 2004, the Honorable Mention of the Czech Mint 2012 and many other awards.
In 2005 he was honoured with the Czech Government Award called the Czech Head. His name is also borne by the Brno company Delong instruments, which carries out research, development, production and assembly of physical devices oriented to the field of electrical engineering and software.
Prof. Ing. Armin Delong, DrSc. died in 2017 in Brno.