Alan R Walker
Science Writer
About Alan Walker
Early days
I was born in Oxford and raised in Farnborough, England, where my mother was a teacher and father an engineer at the Royal Aircraft Establishment. One of my early memories is my father showing me gas turbine engines on their test-beds, running full blast — scary but fascinating! I remain envious of researchers working in laboratories full of big apparatus, but early on realized that my enthusiasm for natural history would make me a better biologist than engineer. During studies of zoology and botany at the University of London we visited the Anti-Locust Research Centre where my enthusiasm for working in the tropics was born.
A scheme run by what is now the Department for International Development of the British government led me to Kenya where I worked as an assistant teacher in the University of Nairobi and studied the ecology of a disease of livestock caused by a virus transmitted by insects. Collaborations with researchers at a nearby government laboratory resulted in a job there. I enjoyed the advantages of being a civil servant and found out how such institutions work. However, the opportunities of expatriate life were becoming limited so I sought a job in Britain.
A department of the University of Edinburgh specialising in tropical animals was welcoming. From there I continue to teach, research and consult on development of livestock health and industry. This is a complex and difficult interface between basic science and its application. My experience here has sharply stimulated thoughts on the convoluted reasoning about how to use talents for scientific discovery in the business of technological development. This has led me to my current book writing.Writing
I have published, as lead author and co-author, over 85 research papers in international journals. Furthermore, a brief spell as a scientific sub-editor for an academic publisher helped me to contribute to scientific publishing as a co-editor of a specialist journal, and currently as consultant editor on two other journals.My teaching revealed the need for something to identify insects and ticks so I wrote and illustrated: Arthropods of Humans and Domestic Animals which was published in 1994 by Chapman and Hall and was well received by a global audience. That enjoyable experience took me into a collaborative publication on a similar theme: Ticks of Domestic Animals of Africa of which I was leader of a group of eight authors.
Because of the specialist target audience, printing and distribution were sponsored by a development fund of the European Union. It was published in 2003 by Bioscience Reports, set up specially for the purpose.
My current project concerns a general theme, with strong political and economic implications, see page on Work in Progress. I am also gathering information for a popular science book on the development and politics of vaccination for human health, from alarms over smallpox vaccination to the MMR controversy.
Personal
My wife and I live in a terraced house of south Edinburgh. Our family has left home for jobs as teacher, programmer and journalist. To relax we ski, climb mountains, and hunt for upland flowers with a camera.Qualifications and jobs
- BSc, MSc and PhD degrees in biology, entomology and epidemiology, from Universities of London and Nairobi.
- Assistant Teacher in the Department of Zoology, University of Nairobi. Veterinary Research Officer, of the Government of Kenya. Research Fellow to Senior Lecturer in the veterinary school of the University of Edinburgh.
- Co-Editor of Medical and Veterinary Entomology for 7 years. Currently on editorial boards of Experimental and Applied Acarology, and Tropical Animal Health and Production.
- Consultancy work in my specialist field for the following organisations and countries:
- Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, in: India, Sudan and Zimbabwe.
- Inter-American Institute for Cooperation in Agriculture, in Colombia.
- European Union funded project, in Ghana.
- Livestock Disease Evaluation Unit, in Malawi.
- International Consortium on Ticks & Tick borne Diseases, in South Africa.
- Department for International Development, in Bolivia.
- Department for Food, Rural Affairs and Agriculture, in England & Wales.
- Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department, in Scotland.