Among the scientists who played an important part in the emergence of nanotechnology was the Swiss Heinrich Rohrer, who with a German colleague Gerd Binnig developed the scanning tunnel microscope, which made atoms "visible" for the first time. The two men, who were both working at the IBM laboratory in Zurich, won half the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1986 for this work.

The Swiss National Science Foundation has set up a National Center of Competence in Research (NCCR) on "Nanoscale Science". The role of "leading house" for this NCCR is played by Basel University.