A Lifetime Achievement

Henry Walker, professor of computer science, received international recognition recently for his service, scholarship, and 40-plus years of teaching. The Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE) honored Walker’s work with its 2013 Award for Lifetime Service to the Computer Science Education Community. He delivered the keynote address at the 2013 awards ceremony, held in March in Denver. 

A subset of the Association for Computing Machinery, SIGCSE is the primary organization for computer science educators from kindergarten through graduate school. It boasts 2,600 members worldwide and annually recognizes an individual with a history of service to computer science education. 

Walker’s career is perhaps best defined by the intersections of service, academic scholarship, and teaching. During a sabbatical in 2000, Walker collaborated with several students and College staff members to develop an online system that would allow educators to submit papers and reviewers to offer feedback. 

“The online system allowed, for the first time, reviewers around the world to contribute without the constraints of sending papers through the mails internationally,” Walker says. “In academia, many faculty think of their work as involving three separate activities: service, scholarship, and teaching. I have been fortunate to integrate all three of these categories in many of my projects.” 

Walker also serves on the development committee for the Advanced Placement Computer Science exam and volunteers as an exam grader. He’s the author of nine textbooks, including last year’s The Tao of Computing; frequently acts as a reviewer for computer science programs at other institutions; and worked to develop an online system to place incoming math and computer science students. 

“My work often supports the broad computer-science-education community, while my teaching benefits from this widespread experience, and my teaching informs my service,” Walker says.