Distorted-wave Born-approximation (DWBA) analysis of direct reactions has proven to be a very useful tool in understanding single- and two-particle transfer reactions and nuclear structure. The 4 MV Van de Graaff accelerator at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University was used to check the feasibility of DWBA analysis on the (d, α) reaction at low bombarding energies for medium weight nuclei where compound nuclear contributions are expected to be present. An excitation function is measured on the ⁴⁴Ca(d, α)⁴²K reaction with incident bombarding energy ranging from 3.3 to 4.0 MeV. The angular distributions obtained from this reaction at 4.0 MeV bombarding energy and with a range of angles from 40° to 160°, are presented for the five strongest levels of ⁴²K along with the DWBA fits. The satisfactory DWBA fits and the L transfers predicted thereby, indicate that this type of analysis might indeed be useful. One good indication is by no means conclusive and more work of this type is needed to substantiate the results found here.Ph. D.