Arthur B. C. Walker, Jr.

Arthur Bertram Cuthbert Walker, Jr. (August 24, 1936 - 2001) was a solar physicist and a pioneer of EUV/XUV optics. He is most noted for having developed normal incidence multilayer XUV telescopes to photograph the solar corona. Two of his sounding rocket payloads, the Stanford/MSFC Rocket Spectroheliograph Experiment and the Multi-Spectral Solar Telescope Array, recorded the first full-disk, high-resolution images of the Sun in XUV with conventional geometries of normal incidence optics; this technology is now used in solar telescopes such as SOHO/EIT and TRACE, and in the fabrication of microchips via ultraviolet photolithography.

Early life

Walker was born in Cleveland, Ohio.

Walker began his scientific career in the U.S. Air Force, and also worked at the Space Physics Laboratory of the Aerospace Corporation. He was a professor at Stanford University from 1974 until his death in 2001. His first graduate student, Sally Ride, went on to become the first American woman in space. He was instrumental in building Congressional approval for the National Solar Observatory, and served on the Presidential commission to investigate the explosion of the Challenger Space Shuttle. Throughout his academic career, Walker championed minority and underprivileged students within the university system, and was a leader in the community of black physicists.