The American physicist Walter H. Brattain (1902-1987), a co-inventor of the transistor, devoted much of his life to research on surface states.

Although he was born in Amoy, China (February 10, 1902), Walter Houser Brattain spent the early part of his life in the northwest of the United States. He was raised in the state of Washington on a cattle ranch owned by his parents, Ross R. Brattain and Ottilie Houser, and earned his B.S. degree in physics and mathematics at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington. Brattain earned that degree in 1924 and an M.A. degree from the University of Oregon in 1926. He then moved eastward, taking his Ph.D. degree in physics at the University of Minnesota in 1929. Brattain's advisor was John T. Tate, and his thesis was on electron impact in mercury vapor. In 1928 and 1929 he worked at the National Bureau of Standards in Washington, D...