Walton undertook undergraduate and postgraduate studies at Trinity College,
Dublin, before going up to Cambridge University. Whilst there, he worked
with John Cockcroft on the first ever nuclear accelerator experiment, using
protons accelerated to 700 keV. (They were jointly awarded the 1951 Nobel
prize for physics for this work on transmutation of atomic nuclei by artificially accelerated atomic particles). Two years after this
collaboration, in 1934, he returned to Trinity college, and
remained there until his retirement in 1974. Walton lived until the
age of 91, having presented his Nobel citation and medal to his college on
his 90th birthday. One of the reasons that Mary Robinson agreed
to unveil this plaque at the very end of her term of office was that he was
one of her sponsors when she stood for election to the Irish Senate.
He is the only
Irish scientist to win a Nobel Prize.
Page last updated 2 November 2012