G. (George) F. Walker

Tertiary education and early career

A graduate of Aberdeen University, G. (George) F. Walker worked in the ceramic industry and at the Macauley Institute before joining CSIRO in 1951.

Time at CSIRO

He was intensely interested in the interactions of mineral surfaces with ions, water molecules and organic materials, and published extensively in this field.

The expanding layer-lattice silicate, vermiculite, was his favourite experimental model, providing precise basic data of elucidation of problems concerning the behaviour of clay minerals in many situations.

He gained a D.Sc. in 1960 for his initial work on vermiculite and later became a world authority on the extensive subject of the complexes that can be formed between clays and organic molecules.

In 1969 he was nominated President Elect of AIPEA, the International Association for the Study of Clays.

A thorough humanist, stimulating in debate and interested in a very wide range of topics, his company will be deeply missed.

Honours and awards

Source

Adapted from a submission by to CoResearch, CSIRO’s staff newsletter (no. 133, April 1970), p. 2