Robert M. Walker (February 6, 1929 – February 12, 2004) was an American physicist, a planetary scientist, the founder and director of McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, noted for his co-discovery of the etchability of nuclear particle tracks in solids, as well as his conjecture that meteorites and lunar rocks contain a record of the ancient radiation history of various stars including the Sun. Asteroid 6372 was named Walker in his honor by the International Astronomical Union. Walker was a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Walker was also a fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Geophysical Union, the Meteoritical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was also a founder and the first president of Volunteers in Technical Assistance (VITA).
1964 American Nuclear Society Annual Award
1966 Yale Engineering Association Annual Award for Contributions to Basic and Applied Science
1967 Doctor, honoris causa, Union College
1970 NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Award
1971 E. O. Lawrence Memorial Award of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission
1973 Elected to the National Academy of Sciences
1975 Docteur, honoris causa, University of Clermont-Ferrand, France
1985 Antarctic Service Medal of the National Science Foundation
1991 J. Lawrence Smith Medal, National Academy of Sciences
1992 Officier de l’Ordre des Palmes Academiques
1993 Leonard Medal of the Meteoritical Society
1997 Peter Raven Lifetime Achievement Award, St. Louis Academy of Science
1999 Asteroid 6372 named Walker by International Astronomical Union
2004 Doctor, honoris causa (posthumous), Washington University
Life and career
February 6, 1929, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1950 graduated from Union College with a degree in physics
1954 Ph.D. in physics, Yale University
1966 the McDonnell Professor of Physics, Washington University
February 12, 2004 died in Brussels, Belgium stomach cancer
