Walter M. Nielsen

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Walter McKinley Nielsen (December 18, 1900, Tyler, Minnesota – January 8, 1981) was an American professor of physics and one of the founders of Duke University's physics department.

Biography

Nielsen studied at the University of Minnesota, completing a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in 1922 and a Ph.D. in physics in 1925.[1] He was the third person to join the physics department at the newly endowed Duke University.[2] There he was an instructor from 1925 to 1928, an assistant professor from 1928 to 1937, and a full professor from 1937[3] to 1966, when he retired as professor emeritus.

National Research Council Fellow at the Bartol Research Foundation and during World War II.[1]

His promotion of research and leadership brought Duke University's physics department "into international prominence."

Henry W. Newson, Lothar Wolfgang Nordheim, and Hertha Sponer. Nielsen’s doctoral students include Karl Z. Morgan.[1]

Nielsen chaired the Duke University Council for many years, the Council of the

Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies[1] (of which he was a member from 1946 to 1959), and the Southeastern Section of the American Physical Society (APS) for one year.[4]

In 1937 he was elected a

Fellows of the American Physical Society.[6] In 1946 he received the Navy Distinguished Civilian Service Award with citation for "outstanding service to the Navy in the field of degaussing and magnetic stabilization of ships".[1]

In 1928 he married Katharine Phelps Tryon (1901–1975). They had two sons and a daughter.[1] In retirement Walter and Katharine Nielsen lived in their house built in 1937 in Durham, North Carolina[7] and in their smaller house near Boone, North Carolina in the Blue Ridge Mountains. There he made a large collection of photographs of wildflowers.[1]

Selected publications

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g "Walter M. Nielsen". Department of Physics, Duke University.
  2. ISBN 0822313022
    . (Pages 91-98 describe the early history of Duke University's physics department.)
  3. ^ Cattell, Jaques, ed. (1949). American Men of Science: A Biographical Directory (8th ed.). p. 1825.
  4. ^
    doi:10.1063/1.2914543
    .
  5. ISBN 9781465338051
    .
  6. ^ "APS Fellow Archive". American Physical Society. (search on year=1937 and institution=Duke University)
  7. ^ "139 Pinecrest Rd. - Nielsen House". opendurham.org.
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