Larry P. Walker - 2017 College of Engineering BAE Distinguished Alumni Award Recipient

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Larry P. Walker - 2017 College of Engineering BAE Distinguished Alumni Award Recipient

Larry P. Walker - 2017 College of Engineering BAE Distinguished Alumni Award

Larry P. Walker - 2017 College of Engineering BAE Distinguished Alumni Award

Larry P. Walker, MS 75 and PhD '78, Agricultural Engineering, was awarded the 2017 College of Engineering BAE Distinguished Alumni Award.

Larry P. Walker serves as a private consultant, after having spent a career at the forefront of biobased fuel research and development at Cornell University. He joined Cornell in 1979, following a short stint with the Tennessee Valley Authority as a process engineer, retiring as full professor and Director of the Biofuels Research Laboratory in June 2015.

During his 30 years at Cornell, Dr. Walker was involved in a number of biomass to energy projects, including an assessment of NYS biomass resources available for ethanol production, farm-scale methane production and co-generation, the application of nanotechnology to discover and study important biocatalysts for biofuels and industrial biotechnology, and the optimization of solid-state fermentation for the production of natural products. Dr. Walker has served in numerous leadership roles including serving as coeditor in chief for the journal Industrial Biotechnology, adviser for the Renewable Fuels Roadmap and Sustainable Biomass Feedstock Assessment for New York, member of the New York State Climate Action Plan Advisory Panel, the National Biomass Research and Development Technical Advisory Committee, the Education Committee of the American Council of Renewable Energy, and the Advisory Board for the Presidential Forum on Renewable Energy.

In 2009, he was elected as a fellow in the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, and was also awarded the Black Enterprise Magazine Master of Innovation Award, and received the Outstanding Faculty Award from the Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. He was awarded the Outstanding Alumnus Award from the MSU College of Agriculture and Natural Resources in 2008, and was named to the CANR Farm Lane Society in 2015.

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