E.T.S. Walton

Dr. Walton was an Irish physicist and 1951 Nobel Laureate, known for the first disintegration of an atomic nucleus by artificially accelerated protons (also known as “splitting the atom”). With British Physicist, John Cockcroft, Walton designed and built a machine called the Cockcroft-Walton Generator that could accelerate the proton to energies of 750,000 electron colts (eVs). For this work, the pair won the 1951 Nobel Prize in Physics; the generator, is still in wide use today.

In 1960, Dr. Walton joined the Albion College Physics Department as a Visiting Professor, sponsored by a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSP), as part of Albion’s College Science Improvement Program (COSIP). He gave a series of lectures at Albion and on other campuses and also directed a research project with Physics major, David Gidley, who graduated in 1972. During his time at Albion, Dr. Walton established and funded the Walton Prize, which is given by the Physics Department to the outstanding senior Physics student. The award is announced at the annual Honors Convocation.