Walter Houser Brattain

Walter Houser Brattain (February 10, 1902 – October 13, 1987) was an American physicist at Bell Labs who, along with fellow scientists John Bardeen and William Shockley, invented the point-contact transistor in December, 1947. They shared the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics for their invention. Brattain devoted much of his life to research on surface states.

Biography

Walter Brattain was born in Xiamen, China, to American parents Ross R. Brattain and Ottilie Houser Brattain. Ross R. Brattain was a teacher at the Ting-Wen Institute, a private school for Chinese boys. Both parents were graduates of Whitman College; Ottilie Houser Brattain was a gifted mathematician. Ottilie and baby Walter returned to the United States in 1903, followed by Ross. The family lived for several years in Spokane, Washington, then settled on a cattle ranch near Tonasket, Washington in 1911.

Brattain attended Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, where he studied with Benjamin H. Brown (physics) and Walter A. Bratton (mathematics). Brattain earned a bachelor's degree from Whitman College in 1924, with a double major in physics and mathematics. Brattain and his classmates Walker Bleakney, Vladimir Rojansky and E. John Workman were later known as "the four horsemen of physics" because all went on to distinguished careers. Brattain's brother Robert, who followed him at Whitman College, also became a physicist.