UKZN mourns science professor

THE University of KwaZulu-Natal has bid farewell to one of its most distinguished scientists, and a consummate all-round academic, Prof ADM (David) Walker.

Walker was Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Natal, Durban, from 1972 and senior professor from 1989, until he retired in 2002. After retirement, he continued as an active researcher until the end, as Emeritus Professor and Senior Research Associate of the university. He died on 17 September aged 80.

After graduating with a BSc (Hons) at Rhodes University in 1959, Walker lectured while completing his MSc in 1962. He was then awarded the Shell International Postgraduate Scholarship to St. John’s College, Cambridge, enabling him to do research at the Cavendish Laboratory, which led to a PhD in 1966. After his return to Rhodes he was promoted to Senior Lecturer, before he moved to Durban.

Prof Walker was recognised internationally as a world leading space physicist. Much of his research centred on ultra low frequency waves in the electrically charged particle environment (plasma) of the magnetosphere, the part of space that is affected by the earth’s magnetic field. He was a co-initiator of and a principal investigator from 1993 to 2002 on the international SHARE (Southern Hemisphere Auroral Radar Experiment) project that involved dual radars at the South African Antarctic base, SANAE, and the British base (Halley Bay). As such he was also for many years a senior member of the international SuperDARN network of dual auroral radar experiments.

Prof Walker received many accolades and his research leadership role was also recognised internationally. Walker published 85 international peer reviewed research articles, many of them single-authored, and his work has been cited more than 3000 times. Unusually, for a physicist, he also wrote two major research books: Plasma Waves in the Magnetosphere, published by Springer in 1993, and Magnetohydrodynamic Waves in Geospace: The Theory of ULF Waves and their Interaction with Energetic Particles in the Solar-Terrestrial Environment, published by the Institute of Physics Press, Bristol, in 2004. He graduated eight PhD and nine MSc students and a final student submitted his Masters’ thesis recently.

“Dave Walker also took his teaching seriously. When he joined the university, he brought with him a fresh look at our teaching and had a significant impact, for instance, in the development of lecture demonstrations and in supporting teaching experiments. His lectures were of a very high standard and were known for their clarity, his depth of understanding of physics and his well-planned notes. His academic leadership style was characterised by his friendliness, analytical, incisive mind, integrity and fairness, his ability to delegate and his decisiveness,” said Prof Manfred Hellberg.

After completing his second research monograph, Walker embarked on serious historical research, scouring museums and archives following the story of his forebears who were 1820 settlers. This led to a 492-page book entitled Pawns in a Larger Game: Life on the Eastern Cape Frontier in 2013. His other hobbies included gardening and watercolour painting. At one stage he took up long distance running, and twice qualified for the Comrades Marathon, but to his regret did not finish.

During his Cambridge days, Dave met his wife, Carol Glencross, a Scottish statistician, and they married in 1967. Throughout his career she was a very supportive wife to him. They have three children in New York, Cape Town and Glasgow, and six grandchildren.

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