He was a founding member and director for scientific communication of the NCCR (National Center of Competence in Research Nanoscale Science).

After obtaining a degree in mechanical engineering,[4] he briefly worked for Contraves (today part of Rheinmetall Air Defence) in Stockholm.

Here, he worked on a project developing the scanning transmission electron microscope, for which his colleagues Heinrich Rohrer and Gerd Binnig would later win the Nobel Prize in Physics.

[4] In 1986, together with Gerd Binnig and Calvin Quate of Stanford University, Gerber published the article describing the atomic force microscope in Physical Review Letters.

[2][5] His work has been recognized with multiple honorary degrees and various awards and appeared in numerous articles in daily press and TV coverage.