Chris Walter wins the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship

Congratulations to Chris Walter for being named as one of the Guggenheim fellows.

Walter spent 2022 on sabbatical in Chile, working hands-on in building and commissioning the observatory, which is currently less than two years away from beginning its operations. The Guggenheim fellowship will allow him to spend an additional year on site, testing hardware systems and leading efforts to build the tools used to simulate and perfect the images obtained by the observatory.

Due to his experience interacting with students in both a classroom and a research environment, Walter is also working hard to ensure that the research environment at the observatory is suitable for students and researchers at all stages of their careers.

At Duke, Walter launched a thriving cosmology program in the Physics department. His research has been continuously funded by both the NSF and the Department of Energy (DOE). In addition to working on the Vera Rubin Observatory, Walter is also involved in high energy physics experiments in Japan. He oversees the large DOE grant that funds the entire Duke particle physics program for work in Chile, Japan, the Fermilab in Chicago and the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland.

“I feel extremely honored to be recognized with a Guggenheim Fellowship,” said Walter. “I’m particularly proud to be associated with scholars and artists from across such a wide range of the humanities, arts and sciences. The fellowship is very important for me personally, and for our cosmology group here at Duke.”