Donnell Walton

Donnell Walton has transformed research concepts to market products for the past 25 years as an industrial physicist. He has conducted and led product-focused research in areas comprising optical communications, biological sensors, high-power lasers, consumer electronics and wireless technology for autonomous vehicles. His work has been reported in two dozen US patents and over 100 articles and conference presentations.

Donnell serves as Deputy Director of the Research Institute for Tactical Autonomy, an Air Force supported university affiliated research center headquartered at Howard University, and as an adjunct professor at the Cornell University Engineering Management program. His most recent corporate role was director at the Corning West Technology Center where he led agile teams of scientists, engineers, and business development experts to explore emerging tech markets, cultivate partnerships with large and small companies, universities, and the venture capital community.

Before working in industry, Donnell was a physics professor at Howard University where he built a laboratory for laser research and conducted time-resolved x-ray studies at the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory. He earned a PhD in Applied Physics from the University of Michigan after conferring bachelor’s degrees in Physics and Electrical Engineering from North Carolina State University.

Donnell has served on the Executive Committee of the Far West Section of the APS, the APS Committee on Minorities, the National Advisory Boards of the Inclusive Graduate Education Network, the IBM/HBCU Quantum Board and the National Society of Black Physicists. He was recently elected as a member of the APS Committee on Council Committees. Walton is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the National Society of Black Physicists.