(1902–87), U.S. physicist. Walter Houser Brattain was born on Feb. 10, 1902, in Amoy, China, of American parents. In 1929 he joined the staff of Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc., and began doing research on the physics of surfaces. He worked as a research physicist for Bell from 1929 to 1941 and from 1943 to 1967. In 1936 William B. Shockley joined Brattain at Bell. They were later joined by John Bardeen and their work led in 1947 to the invention of the transistor, which replaced the bulkier vacuum tube and started a wave of interest in electronic and communications technology. Brattain and his two colleagues were honored in 1956 with the Nobel prize for physics.