Walter Minder

Walter Minder (August 6, 1905 – April 1, 1992) was a Swiss mineralogist and chemist. In 1931, he became professor of radiology at the Institut du Radium at the University of Bern. in 1940 and 1942. He proposed the name helvetium in 1940

Later he worked on dosimetry and the effects of ionising radiation. He was a pacifist and regretted that the atomic bomb had been dropped on Hiroshima on his 40th birthday. In 1960 he participated in two pacifist demonstrations against the possibility of Switzerland purchasing nuclear weapons. He retired in 1964. He published a book on the history of radioactivity in 1981.