Editorial:

Introducing Bob Walters

Engineer, entrepreneur, and computing whiz, Robert Walters is vice president for research at Virginia Tech. He discovered his love of research by following the numbers — or, rather, high-level mathematics.

“I’ve always been interested in mathematics and it turns out that fluid mechanics is a discipline that is described by very non-linear mathematical equations that really benefit from computational approaches,” Walters says.

At first his interests took him into nuclear engineering. Walters earned a B.S. in nuclear engineering in 1977, a master’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1978, and a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering in 1984 with minors in mathematics and nuclear engineering, all from North Carolina State University. But on his way to his Ph.D., N.C. State sent him to a summer internship at the NASA Langley Research Center. “That is where I became interested in the aerodynamics applications of fluid mechanics. And that is where I discovered that I love research.”

Given his freedom and the use of some of the first supercomputers, Walters would run experiments until 2 a.m. and then present his results to fellow scientists. “That sense of discovery was great and it was the perfect time to be at NASA Langley – the early ‘80s. Some of the best mathematicians in the world were working there.”

He finished his summer internship and stayed at Langley to finish his doctoral dissertation, then went to work there as a research associate of the National Research Council.

Walter’s primary research area has been computational fluid dynamics with a focus on algorithm research. His research and professional contributions have been recognized by an IBM Supercomputing Award, a NASA Certificate of Recognition, and a NASA Group Achievement Award, among others.

He became a Virginia Tech professor in aerospace and ocean engineering in 1985. In 1988, Walters founded AeroSoft Inc., a company that specializes in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software development and applications. He sold the successful company to the employees in 1998.

Walters had been department head since 2002 until he joined the Office of the Vice President for Research in September 2006 as interim associate vice president.

Now he is helping his colleagues and their students invent the future and enjoy the process.

Bob Walters

Many fields benefit from computing. In this issue of Virginia Tech Research we talk about computer scientists who are developing algorithms that help life scientists discover unrealized connections in vast amounts of information being published, engineers who are creating wearable computers to save lives, and geography students using technology that tracks storms. But, as always, the quality of our future depends on what we learn and the decisions we make. So we present stories of scientists studying how memory, cognition, and emotion develop together in children and scientists who are fighting the invaders that are destroying hemlocks. And a political scientist searches for ways to dislodge the road blocks to Bosnia’s recovery from civil war. Finally, we thank five of our colleagues for their lifetime contributions.