Physics Keystone Stays Active in Retirement

Physics Keystone Stays Active in Retirement

BY PHILIP MONTGOMERY
Rice News Staff

King Walters, who pioneered atomic physics research at Rice, a program that has evolved to become one of the leading efforts nationwide, recently joined the ranks of Rice’s emeriti professors.

Although retired, Walters remains as active as ever. He serves as associate dean of the Wiess School of Natural Sciences and is involved in major projects for the school. Walters is no stranger to the challenge of the administrative side of the natural sciences at Rice.

"He was dean of the school before Jim Kinsey and has been a major keystone in the physics department," said Kathleen Matthews, dean of natural sciences. "He is an excellent scientist and teacher and is very dedicated to Rice. He is someone with high integrity and has engendered trust in his colleagues and students."

Walters came to Rice in 1963 after making his mark at Texas Instruments. His research there so impressed the faculty of the Rice physics department that he was asked to join Rice. For Walters, a 1953 graduate of Rice, returning to campus was like coming home. He was given an office on the first floor of Hersztein Hall, and for all his years at Rice, he’s occupied that same space.

By a window in his office, Walters keeps a device consisting of glass tubes and tarnished brass to remind him of his origins. It is a target for a nuclear physics experiment conducted at Rice using an atomic accelerator in the now-gone Bonner Nuclear Laboratory. While at Texas Instruments, Walters designed the device for experiments to be used on the Rice accelerator.

Those experiments formed the basis for very sensitive devices for measuring magnetic fields, explained Barry Dunning, chair of the physics department and professor of physics. The U.S. military used the technology to detect Soviet nuclear submarines by their magnetic fields. Called magnetic anomaly detectors, the devices were also used on spacecrafts.

Another outcome of Walters’ research is just now finding practical application as an improved MRI device, which can image the lungs when patients breathe in polarized helium or xenon gas, Dunning said.

Walters continues his studies in the area of optically pumped helium. He has pioneered a number of techniques for looking at particle surface interaction at an atomic level and surface magnetism. In addition, he performed pioneering work in the ’70s on excimer lasers that are now widely used to print semiconductor chips.

Walters also is a concerned teacher who has mentored 29 graduate students on a doctoral level, Dunning said. He continues to work closely with Dunning’s graduate students.

Recently Walters was honored by the Frederick Gardner Cottrell Foundation, which made a $1 million grant called the King Walters Research Innovation Fund to the Rice physics department. The fund was created to honor Walters’ work for Research Corporation Technologies, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting science research.

Time is relative, and for Walters, his 37 years at Rice have passed quickly.

"Sometimes I wonder how it happened so fast," Walters said.