Title: Mathematics Professor
Company: University of Colorado, Boulder
Location: Boulder, Colorado, United States
Martin E. Walter, Mathematics Professor at University of Colorado, Boulder, has been recognized by Marquis Who’s Who Top Educators for dedication, achievements, and leadership in mathematics.
For nearly 50 years, Martin E. Walter has devoted his life to educating and inspiring mathematics students. He has had a deep love for nature and science since childhood, and his teachers at all levels have inspired and encouraged him. His career has been a synergy of his passions for mathematics and the natural world. He has sought to show students both the beauty and usefulness of mathematics. He earned a Bachelor of Science from the University of Redlands in 1966; then, at the University of California Irvine, a master’s degree in 1969 and a doctorate in 1971.
Dr. Walter’s first appointment was as a postdoctoral functional analysis year fellow at the University of California Los Angeles. He then served as a research associate at Queen’s University in Canada from 1971 to 1973. In 1973, he began his tenure with the University of Colorado Boulder as an assistant, then associate and full professor of mathematics, with memorable visits to universities in Leuven, Belgium, and Trondheim, Norway. Dr. Walter teaches courses from calculus to functional and harmonic analysis, operator algebras, and mathematics for the environment.
Specializing in analysis and environmental modeling, Dr. Walter has garnered a stellar reputation in his field. He has contributed pure mathematics papers to professional journals and books as well as more applied works such as “Earthquakes and Weatherquakes: Mathematics and Climate Change,’” in volume 57, issue 10 of Notices of the AMS, and a chapter for a book on the “Mathematics of Populations: Infections and Invasions.” Dr. Walter’s 2011 book, “Mathematics for the Environment,” has a second edition forthcoming with subtitle, “As If Survival Matters.”
In addition to his professional pursuits, Dr. Walter dedicates his time and resources to a number of organizations. He is a life member of and has served in various positions with the Rocky Mountain chapter of the Sierra Club and is also a life member of the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union. He is a long-time member of the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Association of America, as well as Doctors Without Borders, Greenpeace and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Once a junior rock-climbing instructor for the Colorado Mountain Club, he also did a few cross-country ski races and climbed a few mountains. Besides service to aforementioned professional societies, he has served on some advisory committees for the Boulder County Commissioners, and most notably gave a dozen years in service to Boulder County Public Health.
Dr. Walter’s first honor was to be a representative of Southern California at the National Science Fair in Seattle, Washington, in 1962. One of the prizes he won there was a summer job in Dugway, Utah, as a mathematical aide to Dr. Thompson, in the division of biological and chemical warfare of the Army Chemical Corps. One result of this was a lifelong appreciation of the mysteries of life and meteorology. Upon graduating from university in 1966, he was chosen to be a Woodrow Wilson fellow and was awarded a National Science Foundation fellowship to graduate school. In 1976 he was awarded an Alfred P. Sloan fellowship which he used to visit the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California Berkeley. In 2018, Dr. Walter was honored with the Boulder Faculty Assembly Award for his excellence in leadership and service.
Presently, Dr. Walter is thankful for his loving wife Jiang Joy Wu, his daughter Liv, son-in-law Chris and granddaughter Emmy. He lives in Boulder County, Colorado, with Joy. In his free time, he enjoys mountain and rock climbing, scuba diving and farming. In 2021, Dr. Walter was presented with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award.
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Marquis Who’s Who Lifetime Achievement Award
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