Ernest Walton Autograph

Profession:
(1903-1995) Irish physicist, Nobel Prize in Physics (1951).

Year of Birth: 1903

Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton was a pioneering Irish physicist who was born on October 6, 1903, in Abbeyside, County Waterford, Ireland. He is best known for being the first person to artificially split the atom.

Walton attended Wesley College in Dublin, before studying at Trinity College Dublin, where he earned his Bachelor of Science degree in 1926 and his Master of Science degree in 1927. He then went on to study at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, working under the supervision of Sir Ernest Rutherford.

Walton's groundbreaking work on splitting the atom took place in the early 1930s when he and his colleague John Cockcroft successfully bombarded lithium with protons using a particle accelerator they had built. This experiment resulted in the creation of helium atoms, effectively demonstrating the principle of nuclear transmutation.

For his contributions to the field of nuclear physics, Walton was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1951, along with John Cockcroft. He was the first Irish person to ever receive a Nobel Prize in Science.

Throughout his career, Walton made significant advancements in nuclear physics and particle acceleration. He also held several prestigious academic positions, including a professorship at Trinity College Dublin and a Fellowship at the Royal Society of London.

Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton passed away on June 25, 1995, leaving behind a lasting legacy in the field of nuclear physics and paving the way for future generations of physicists.