Daniel Frank Walls
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Daniel ("Dan") Frank Walls (b. 1949, d. May 12, 1999) was a theorist specialising in quantum optics. He is notably regarded as the greatest New Zealand physicist since Rutherford.
Dan Walls gained a BSc in physics and mathematics and a first class honours MSc in physics at the University of Auckland. He then went to Harvard as a Fulbright Scholar, obtaining his PhD in 1969, under Roy J. Glauber (who later won a Nobel prize). After holding post-doctoral positions in Auckland and Stuttgart Walls became a senior lecturer in physics at the University of Waikato where he became professor in 1980. Since 1987 he had been professor of theoretical physics at Auckland.
His major research interests centred on the interaction and similarities between light and atoms. In particular, he studied the ways that the particle-like nature of light (photons) could be controlled to make optical systems less susceptible to unwanted fluctuations. In recent years, he contributed greatly to our theoretical understanding of a new state of matter Bose-Einstein condensation, in which atoms act collectively like the photons in a laser beam.
Dan Walls was made a Fellow of the Royal Societies of London and New Zealand. His many medals and prizes included the award in 1995 of the Paul Dirac Medal for theoretical physics.
