Dr Walker's influence on the study of Australia's wildlife and ecological systems is seminal. He achieves this through his ability to identify the key issues, through his outstanding leadership of the CSIRO Division of Wildlife and Ecology, and through his clear and persuasive logic on most of the relevant committees. Dr Walker's name is a sine qua non on such bodies. His standing is epitomised by his appointment as President of the 1990 ANZAAS Congress.
His insightful leadership has been recognised internationally, for example he was a Chairman and continues on the scientific committee of the International Decade of the Tropics, and is a Member of the IUCN Commission on Ecology.
His great assets, and the reason he is in such demand, are that he produces and achieves. This has led most recently to the ICSU asking him to co-ordinate IGBP's Core Project on Terrestrial Ecosystems;·one of only four core projects which will make Australia the focus for research into the impacts of global change on ecological systems.
Publications
Dr Walker is the author or co-author of about 70 papers in fully refereed journals, and of three books .