October 6, 1903 - Birth of Ernest Walton, Nobel Prize for the transmutation of atomic nuclei

Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton, between 1927 and 1934, was engaged in nuclear physics research under the direction of Ernest Rutherford at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge University, and received his PhD in 1931.

His early research included theoretical and experimental studies in hydrodynamics and indirect methods of producing fast particles, working on the linear accelerator and what later became known as the betatron.

He collaborated with John Cockroft in the construction of one of the first atom disintegrators to demonstrate that the bombardment of fast protons could disintegrate various light elements. Both were thus directly responsible for the disintegration of a nucleus of a lithium atom by bombardment with accelerated protons and identifying the products as helium nuclei, for which they received the Hughes Medal of the Royal Society of London.

In 1951, Cockroft also shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the transmutation of atomic nuclei using artificially accelerated particles, which paved the way for the construction of large cyclotrons.

If you want to know more about this scientist, click on the following link: Ernest Walton