Prof. em. Dr. Hans Christian Walter

Hans Christian Walter directed the department for nuclear and particle physics at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Villigen. Previously he was a member of the Institute of Intermediate Energy Physics at the ETH Zurich. In 1990 he was awarded the title of Professor. He retired in October 2002.

Professor Walter, born on August 21, 1937 in Gera, Germany, studied physics in Munich and Hamburg. He graduated under Professor H. Maier-Leibnitz in Munich and did his Ph.D. work under Professor P. Kienle in Darmstadt, where he also qualified as a lecturer (habilitation). Then he was involved as a member of one of the first international collaboration efforts at the synchrocyclotron at CERN with myonic atoms, until being appointed to SIN to help establish a research program in intermediate energy physics. With brief research interludes at Cal Tech in Pasadena and LAMPF in Los Alamos, he has worked on particle physics experiments at the Paul Scherrer Institute and at CERN since 1974.

Parallel to this Professor Walter gave elective subject lectures in the area of particle physics at the ETH Zurich, and in conjunction with other Swiss universities organized a practical particle physics course at the PSI accelerator. As department head he was a member of the PSI directorate and referee in several international Research Commissions. After his retirement and a short stay at TRIUMF in Canada, he attended to his hobby of restoring technical antiquities.