Walter Hälg, the founder of neutron scattering in Switzerland, gives his name to the prestigious prize of the European Neutron Scattering Association. (The Walter Haelg Prize - Call 2005) This insigne Professor of Nuclear Engineering is an 87 year-old man that still keeps on taking care of the future of neutrons in Europe.

Born in Basel in 1917, citizen of Basel, Switzerland, he is one of the pioneers in this area of science, and worked on it supported by his large knowledge in science. Experimental physics, theoretical physics, chemistry, and mathematics were the four fields that took up his student time at the Basel University where 1943 he received his PhD in molecular physics. From 1943 to 1946 he worked in particle physics at the Physical Institute of the University of Basel and on the construction of a 1 MeV Cockroft-Walton accelerator. He spent the years 1946-1960 at the AG Brown Boveri Co Baden (BBC), predecessor of the current ABB, and was promoted head of the physics department 1953. During his time at BBC, he worked on the development of the Swiss heavy water reactor DIORIT at Würenlingen, which went critical on 26 August 1960. In between, i.e. 1952/1953, he was sent to the Dutch-Norwegian Reactor Research Institute JENER in Kjeller.
1960, he was named full Professor for Nuclear Reactor Technology at the Swiss Federal Institute Zürich, his main fields of research focusing on reactor theory, numerical mathematics, neutron diffraction, and computer science. He was involved in the construction of the neutron spectrometers at the reactor DIORIT as well as in the development of a multiprocessor computer (16 CPU’s) for solving partial differential equations. He carried out the first calculations for a spallation source using the surplus protons of the 500 MeV ring of the near institute for neutron production, SIN, after decommissioning of the reactor DIORIT in August 1974.
Professor Hälg’s contributions to neutron scattering are extensive. He supervised many PhD students, among them the neutron scatterers A. Furrer, P. Fischer, and J. Schefer. During 10 years, he was member and president of the “Forschungskommission” of the Swiss Federal Institute Zürich. Currently, he is an honorary member of the executive board of the Swiss Neutron Scattering Society. He is also honorary member of the distinguished Physical Society of Zürich.
He retired in the autumn 1984.

Albert Furrer, present head of the Laboratory for Neutron Scattering (LNS) at ETHZ and PSI, was chairman of the European Neutron Scattering Association when he proposed Professor Hälg to give his name to the Prize. Since 1999, ENSA awards this prize to a European scientist for an outstanding programme of research in neutron scattering with a long-term impact on scientific and /or technical neutron scattering applications. The scope of this prize is coincident with the result of the professional career of that man who gives his name to this prize.