Anton Karlovich Walter (24.12.1905—13.08.1965) — Soviet physicist, academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR (1951). Born in St Petersburg. He graduated from the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute (1926). In 1924–30 he worked at the Leningrad Physico-Technical Institute and from 1930 at the Kharkov Physico-Technical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR (head of a department from 1945), and at the same time
in 1937–65 he was professor and head of a chair at Kharkov University. His research concerned the physics of dielectrics and semiconductors, high-voltage engineering, vacuum physics and technology, nuclear physics, accelerator technology and high-energy physics.
He studied the electrical and mechanical properties of dielectrics and the electrical and photoelectric properties of semiconductors. He developed the first physical theory of dielectric loss phenomena. In 1932, together with A. I. Leipunsky, K. D. Sinelnikov and G. D. Latyshev, he was the first in the USSR to split the atomic nucleus with artificially accelerated protons. He directed the construction of a number of electrostatic accelerators and of a 2 GeV linear electron accelerator, and the experiments on nuclear and elementary particle physics carried out with them. Together with K. D. Sinelnikov he developed and built (1938–41) the first oil diffusion pumps in the country.