Background
Knight, Walter David was born on October 14, 1919 in New York City. Son of Walter David and Ruth Della (Hubbard) Knight.
Knight, Walter David was born on October 14, 1919 in New York City. Son of Walter David and Ruth Della (Hubbard) Knight.
AB, Middlebury College, 1941. Master of Arts, Duke University, 1943. Doctor of Philosophy in physics, Duke University, 1950.
Honorary Doctor of Science, Middlebury College, 1976. Doctor honorary, Ecole Polytech. Federal de Lausanne, Switzerland, 1983.
Knight was mostly notable for the discovery of Knight shift, the effect that has been given his name. Knight shifts are frequency shifts of the nuclear magnetic resonance (Nuclear magnetic resonance) in metals. The Los Angeles Times said that Knight "pioneered the use of electric quadrupole resonance and magnetic resonance as sensitive probes in studying structural and other changes in metal crystals".
The National Academies Press said that his "name has been immortalized in condensed-matter physics as the discoverer of a nuclear magnetic resonance phenomenon known as the Knight shift." Knight was dean of the College of Letters and Science, Berkeley University"s largest college.
Other distinctions included two honorary degrees: one from Middlebury College and the other from the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, and the Berkeley Citation, the highest honor of Berkeley University. Knight was born and grew up in New York City.
He graduated from Middlebury College in Vermont in 1941. Knight received his Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy in physics from Duke University in North Carolina.
He moved to the University of California, Berkeley in 1950 and progressed from Assistant Dean to Associate Dean to Dean.
Served to lieutenant (junior grade) United States Naval Reserve, 1944-1946. Fellow American Physical Society, American Association for the Advancement of Science. Member National Academy of Sciences, European Physical Society, American Academy Arts and Sciences, Sigma Xi.
Married Elizabeth Lewis Wiggins, April 7, 1945 (divorced July, 1972) children– Margaret Benton, Jonathan Goodnow. Married Sara Frances Pattershall, July 27, 1972. 1 child, Nathaniel Nims.