Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton

Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton was an Irish nuclear physicist who co-invented the Cockcroft–Walton generator, a type of particle accelerator, and used it for his major work in nuclear transmutation. The accelerator was used to repeatedly bombard lithium with protons, causing the lithium nuclei to split into two alpha particles, and demonstrated the first instance of artificially induced nuclear disintegration. Following this, Walton shared the 1951 Nobel Prize in Physics with John Cockcroft "for their pioneer work on the nuclear transmutation of atomic nuclei by artificially accelerated atomic particles". According to their Nobel Prize citation: "Thus, for the first time, a nuclear transmutation was produced by means entirely under human control". He was also the Erasmus Smith's Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy at Trinity College Dublin from 1946 to 1974.