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BY SEAN NEALON
Sharon Walker, an associate professor of
chemical and environmental engineering in the
Bourns College of Engineering, is a native of
Los Angeles who moved east to earn her
master’s and Ph.D. at Yale University. She
returned to California in 2005 when UCR
offered her the John Babbage Chair in
Environmental Engineering.
What has the John Babbage Chair
allowed you to do?
A number of things, but perhaps two are the
most significant.
It has allowed me to pay a couple Ph.D.
students when they were doing projects that
wouldn’t have been funded anywhere else. It’s
great when a student comes to you and you can
say, ‘Great idea, let’s do it.’ That’s the intellectual
freedom that the Babbage Chair has given me.
It also provides travel money. If I have travel
money on a grant, I want to send my student. I
want them to have the exposure. So I use my
Babbage Chair money to cover expenses for
travel. While traveling, I make a point of getting
the UCR name out. I try to recruit graduate
students and I have had some really successful
research collaborations develop from the
relationships I have made.
How did you end up at UC Riverside?
After earning my Ph.D. at Yale, I was set to
do a post-doc in Germany when I decided —
because I am from California — [to] throw my
name in the hat for a few positions that were
open in California. I had absolutely no
expectation of getting an interview. And
wouldn’t you know, Riverside called me up and
invited me to interview.
For a video on Sharon Walker’s research go to
I came out here nervous as all get-out. But it
was such a wonderful day. I remember meeting
people and thinking what an amazing group of
faculty in the department. I was really blown
away. I remember getting back to the Mission
Inn after a very exhausting, rigorous day and
thinking, ‘Gosh, I hope I get the job.’ I was
really shocked. I don’t think I realized how
much I wanted it until after I had been here and
met everybody. I was flabbergasted when they
called and said they wanted to offer me a position.
Can you talk about the program you
developed that brings Riverside
Community College District students to
your lab?
I work with
Heather Smith at
Riverside City
College. Each year
we select two
students. They spend
an intensive summer
internship in my lab.
We put them up in the dorms. They participate
in wonderful professional development
programming. And they just get absolutely
immersed in collegiate life. I’ll tell you, there is
nothing like that to turn a young student
around and say, ‘Wow, I want to go to a
four-year college, I want to go on in science.’
After that intensive summer, we continue to pay
them as a research intern during the academic
year. So, instead of being a barista at Starbucks,
they keep going in science.
To date, 100 percent of the students have
gone on to a four-year institution. Two are in
Ph.D. programs and the other is in a nursing
program.
MAGAZINE.UCR.EDU
In 2009-10, you spent the academic
year in Israel on a Fulbright
scholarship studying how the country
uses and reuses water. Why did you
apply for the Fulbright?
My husband and I were looking for a bit of
adventure. I was putting in my tenure file.
Someone gave me the brilliant advice when
your tenure file is in, get out of Dodge – because
nothing is more stressful than sitting around
waiting to be reviewed. We thought, ‘We don’t
have kids yet, this is the time to go.’ And, funny
enough, I got pregnant. So, we knew we were
going to be having a baby while we were away.
Because my daughter was born in Israel, we
wanted to give her an Israeli name. So her name
is Ma’ayan, which means a spring of water,
which is fitting for my research area.
Talk about your current research.
The biggest thing I’m working on now is the
fate of nanomaterials that are getting into our
environment. Nanomaterials are being used in
everything from cosmetics to food to paints to
tennis rackets. Gym socks don’t smell because
there are silver nanoparticles in there. They are
what make our cell phones small and light.
They are part of our new lifestyle.
The problem is that these materials get
released into the water as they are produced
and used. I’m looking at how traditional
engineering approaches can remove
nanomaterials and, if they don’t, how to change
the design of treatment plants to make sure our
water is safe.
UCR Spring 2013 | 19