As a full-time researcher in the Wall lab from July 2015 to June 2018, Walter has been working on NSF-funded research on the soil biological communities of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica, and on other projects ranging from grasslands to desert ecosystems. He is currently collaborating with the Wall lab as a visiting scientist of the CSU Department of Biology.
He received a double-institution PhD degree from University College Dublin (Ireland) and Wageningen University (the Netherlands), with a thesis on the role of earthworms in ecosystem functioning. He obtained a Master of Research in Ecology at the University of Aberdeen (Scotland, UK), where his research thesis was on the effects of grazing removal and seabird-derived nutrient deposition on soil nematodes. His BSc and MSc degrees were in Natural Sciences at the University of Naples “Federico II” (Italy), with a final dissertation on soil micro-arthropods.
His favourite soil organisms are Scottnema lindsayae, Allolobophora chlorotica (green morph), and box mites.