{"id":5569,"date":"2016-07-26T21:40:02","date_gmt":"2016-07-27T04:40:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/?p=5569"},"modified":"2022-02-09T21:56:14","modified_gmt":"2022-02-09T21:56:14","slug":"walker-brian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/2016\/07\/walker-brian\/","title":{"rendered":"Brian Walker"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>From an \u201cEcologist Directory\u201d maintained by the ESA Education Office about 2004-2005. Profile circa 2004.<\/em><br><strong>Degree<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ph.D.<br><strong>Position<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Program Director &amp; Scientist<br><strong>Department<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Australian CSIRO Division<br><strong>Organization<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Resilience Alliance &amp; Sustainable Ecosystems<br>Dr. Walker is one of the recipients of ESA\u2019s 2004 Sustainability Science Award for the following paper: Scheffer, M., Carpenter, S., Foley, J., Folke, C., and Walker, B. 2001. Catastrophic shifts in ecosystems. Nature, vol. 413: 591-596.<br><strong>When did you get interested in ecology? Who was most influential in guiding you into ecology?<\/strong><br>I became interested in ecology as young boy, growing up in Zimbabwe. The person most influential in guiding me into ecology was Dr Oliver West, a Zimbabwean ecologist who undertook the first ecological studies in that country in the 1950s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"171\" height=\"250\" src=\"https:\/\/esa.org\/history-preprod\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2016\/07\/brianwalker.gif\" alt=\"A portrait image of Brian Walker.\" class=\"wp-image-5556 img-fluid\"><figcaption>Brian Walker<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>How did you learn about ecological careers? What is your position title now?<\/strong><br>I learned about ecological careers after I finished my undergraduate degree (in agriculture). I am currently Program Director of The Resilience Alliance (half-time) and a scientist in the Australian CSIRO Division of Sustainable Ecosystems (half-time).<br><strong>Describe your route to a career in (or using) ecology. What challenges did you need to overcome? What was your training, and what positions have you held?<\/strong><br>I began my career, after a B.Sc. in Agriculture, as a Land Development Officer in Zimbabwe. After 3 years, I realized my interest was in ecology, and I moved to Canada where I obtained a Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of Saskatchewan. After a short term in applied agricultural ecology research back in Zimbabwe, I moved to the University of Zimbabwe as lecturer in Ecology (6 years). I then moved to the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, as Professor of Botany, where I established a Centre for Resource Ecology. After 10 years there I moved to Australia (in 1985) as Chief of the CSIRO Division of Wildlife and Ecology. I stepped down from that position at the end of 1999 in order to get back into research.<br><strong>What key advice would you offer a student today?<\/strong><br>Follow your heart in what interests you; make sure you get a really good understanding (through field experience) of biology and ecosystem dynamics; ensure that your coursework includes a good grounding in maths.<br><strong>What advice do you have for communicating ecology to diverse audiences?<\/strong><br>Clear, simply explained examples. Avoid jargon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From an \u201cEcologist Directory\u201d maintained by the ESA Education Office about 2004-2005. Profile circa 2004.Degree\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ph.D.Position\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Program Director &amp; ScientistDepartment\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Australian CSIRO DivisionOrganization\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Resilience Alliance &amp; Sustainable EcosystemsDr. Walker is one of the recipients of ESA\u2019s 2004 Sustainability Science Award for the following paper: Scheffer, M., Carpenter, S., Foley, J., Folke, C., and Walker, B. 2001. Catastrophic shifts in&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11106,"featured_media":5556,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[151,155,165],"tags":[80],"class_list":["post-5569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biographies","category-ecologist-directory","category-personal-accounts","tag-international"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}