Water Wheel Sept 2021: Water Personality

Abstract

Prof Sue Walker – A career in agrometeorology Highlights from Prof Walker’s extraordinary career include obtaining her PhD from the University of California, Davis in the USA in 1988 for a thesis titled ‘Spatial pattern of leaf growth of sorghum as affected by water stress and implications for canopy development’ . She has published 103 peer-reviewed scientific articles and 27 chapters in books and was the supervisor or cosupervisor of 20 doctoral graduates. Prof Walker’s interest in climate and the environment started at a young age when she observed her father measuring the rainfall after every event in a copper rain-gauge. She learned about gardening and wildlife from her mother. In high school, her Geography teachers further stimulated her interest. Even as a child growing up in Gillitts, KwaZulu-Natal, she sought answers to weather-related questions such as why was it misty when she left home and walked to the bus but when she arrived at school in the next valley the sun was shining? Those things fascinated her.

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