Walter Houser Brattain

Walter Houser Brattain
Brattain in 1956
Born	(1902-02-10)February 10, 1902 Amoy, Fujian, Qing China
Died	October 13, 1987(1987-10-13) (aged 85) Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Whitman College (BS) University of Oregon (MA) University of Minnesota (PhD)
Known for	Inventing the point-contact transistor (1947)
Spouses	Karen Gilmore ​ ​ (m. 1935; died 1957)​ Emma Jane Miller ​ (m. 1958)​
Children	1
Relatives	Robert Brattain (brother)
Awards	Stuart Ballantine Medal (1952) Nobel Prize in Physics (1956)
Scientific career
Fields	Solid-state physics
Institutions	Bell Labs (1929–1967) Whitman College (1967–1976)
Thesis	Efficiency of Excitation by Electron Impact and Anomalous Scattering in Mercury Vapor (1929)
Doctoral advisor	John Torrence Tate Sr.

Walter Houser Brattain (/ˈbrætən/ BRAT-uhn;^[1] February 10, 1902 – October 13, 1987) was an American solid-state physicist who shared the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics with John Bardeen and William Shockley for their invention of the point-contact transistor.^[2] Brattain devoted much of his life to research on surface states.