Ernest Walton

Ernest Walton was an Irish physicist. Together with John Cockcroft, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics, in 1951. Walton studied Mathematics and experimental physics at Trinity College in Dublin. In 1934, he married Freda Wilson, the daughter of a Methodist priest. They had two sons and two daughters. He was the first to split the atom. He is best known for his work with John Cockcroft to construct one of the earliest types of particle accelerator, the Cockcroft–Walton generator. In experiments performed at Cambridge University in the early 1930s using the generator, Walton and Cockcroft became the first team to use a particle beam to transform one element to another. According to their Nobel Prize citation: "Thus, for the first time, a nuclear transmutation was produced by means entirely under human control".

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Category:1903 births
Category:1995 deaths
Category:Irish physicists
Category:Nobel Prize in Physics winners