Millett, Walter E.

Walter Elmer Millett was born in East Moline, Illinois on July 26, 1917. He received both a BS (1940) and an MS (1942) in physics and mathematics from the University of Florida. He then worked at the MIT Radiation Laboratory for the next three and a half years, where he researched improvements in the resolution of radar systems. After World War II, Millett pursued graduate study in physics at Harvard University, receiving his PhD in 1949. Following an Atomic Energy Commission Postdoctoral Fellowship at Cal Tech, he returned to the University of Florida as a lecturer in 1950, becoming an assistant professor in 1951.

In 1952, Millett became an assistant professor in the University of Texas physics department where he researched positron annihilation, pioneering the use of this technique to determine the momentum distributions of electrons in both solids and liquids. He was promoted to assistant professor in 1957, spent the summer of 1960 performing positron annihilation studies at the Niels Bohr Institute in Denmark, and was promoted to professor in 1962. Millett was appointed professor emeritus in 1987, following a five-year period of modified service.

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