Albert Crewe, a University of Chicago physicist whose ingenious contributions to electron microscope development made it possible to see the previously unseen and yielded photographs of individual atoms, died Nov. 20 at his home near Chicago. Crewe was 82; his death was attributed to Parkinson’s disease.

In 1970, Crewe was hailed for his striking and unusual still photos of atoms. In 1976, he was praised as a pioneer when he made motion pictures of atoms. Such achievements aided progress in areas of science, including computers, catalysis and cell biology.

Just as light waves form images in optical microscopes, beams of electrons create images in electron microscopes. Electrons are particles, but like light, they have the properties of waves.

Significantly, the wave lengths of electrons are much shorter than those of visible light. Atoms are too small to see by visible light, no matter how powerful the microscope. But electron wavelengths can be small enough to see atoms — with the right instrument.

A key step by which Crewe created his images of atoms was his development of a special electron source that made available electrons with nearly identical wavelengths. That made it possible to focus the electron beam, like a laser, on targets as tiny as single atoms.

Albert Victor Crewe was born into poverty on Feb. 18, 1927, in Yorkshire, England, and rose by ability through the academic ranks, obtaining a physics doctorate at the University of Liverpool in 1951.

He worked with atom smashers; their operation, like that of the electron microscope, entails the control of beams of particles.

Offered a post at the University of Chicago, he joined the physics faculty in 1956 and retired 40 years later as professor emeritus. From 1971 to 1981, he was dean of physical science.