Editing Jearl Walker

{{Short description|American physicist and author}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name              = Jearl Walker
| image             = [[File:Jearl Walker.jpg|200px|center|Dr. Jearl D. Walker, Physicist]]
| birth_date        = {{Birth year and age|1945}}
| birth_place       = [[Pensacola, Florida]], U.S.
| field             = Physics
| work_institutions = [[Cleveland State University]]
| alma_mater        = [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]]<br />[[University of Maryland]]
| doctoral_advisor  = 
| doctoral_students = 
| known_for         = ''[[The Amateur Scientist]]'' column<br />[[The Flying Circus of Physics]]
| influences        = 
| influenced        = 
| prizes            = Outstanding Teaching Award ([[Cleveland State University]] College of Science)
| signature         = 
}}
'''Jearl Dalton Walker''' (born 1945 in [[Pensacola, Florida]]) is a [[physicist]] noted for his book ''[[The Flying Circus of Physics]]'', first published in 1975; the second edition was published in June 2006. He teaches physics at [[Cleveland State University]].<ref>[http://facultyprofile.csuohio.edu/csufacultyprofile/detail.cfm?FacultyID=HRW Faculty profile, Cleveland State University]</ref>

Walker has also revised and edited the textbook ''[[Fundamentals of physics (textbook)|Fundamentals of Physics]]'' with [[David Halliday (physics)|David Halliday]] and [[Robert Resnick]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Walker |first1=Jearl |last2=Resnick |first2=Robert |authorlink2=Robert Resnick |last3=Halliday |first3=David |authorlink3=David Halliday (physicist) |title=Halliday & Resnick Fundamentals of Physics |date=2014 |publisher=Wiley |isbn=9781118233764 |oclc=436030602 |edition=10th}}</ref>

Walker is a well-known popularizer of physics, and appeared on ''[[The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson]]''.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (Professor Jearl Walker, Patrick Duffy)|url=https://www.paleycenter.org/collection/item/?p=42&item=B:43854 |website=The Paley Center for Media |publisher=[[Paley Center for Media]] |accessdate=December 20, 2016}}</ref> Walker is known  for his physics demonstrations, which have included sticking his hand in molten lead, walking barefoot over hot coals, lying on a bed of nails, and pouring freezing-cold [[liquid nitrogen]] in his mouth to demonstrate various principles of physics.  Such demonstrations are included in his [[PBS]] series, ''Kinetic Karnival'',<ref>{{cite web |title=Kinetic Karnival|url=http://www.tvguide.com/tvshows/kinetic-karnival/407539/ |website=TV Guide |publisher=CBS Interactive |accessdate=December 20, 2016}}</ref> produced by [[WVIZ]] in [[Cleveland, Ohio]].

Walker was born in [[Pensacola, Florida]], and grew up in [[Fort Worth, Texas]].{{Citation needed|date=December 2009}} He graduated with a degree in physics from the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] in 1967. He received his Ph.D. from the [[University of Maryland]] in 1973.

Walker authored  ''[[The Amateur Scientist]]'' column in ''[[Scientific American]]'' magazine from 1978 to 1988.<ref>{{cite web |title=Scientific American's The Amateur Scientist Index |url=http://amasci.com/amateur/sciamdx.html |website=Science Hobbyist |accessdate=December 20, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|title=The Physics of the follow, draw, and masse (in billiards and pool)|jstor=24968949|pages=124–129|journal=Scientific American |year=1983|volume=249|issue=1|last1=Walker|first1=Jearl|doi=10.1038/scientificamerican0783-124 }}</ref> During the latter part of this period, he had been the Chairman of the Physics Department at Cleveland State University. He appeared regularly around this time on the long-running CBC radio science program ''[[Quirks and Quarks]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Suzuki |first1=David |authorlink1=David Suzuki |title=Letters to My Grandchildren |date=May 18, 2015 |publisher=Greystone Books |isbn=9781771640893 |page=55 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZSC5BwAAQBAJ&pg=PT55}}</ref>

From 1981 to 1982 he hosted ''The Kinetic Karnival of Jearl Walker'', a six-episode series for [[PBS]] syndication in the US. In each 30-minute program he performed humorous demonstrations before a live audience. The show was distributed to schools as a teaching aide.

He is the first recipient, in 2005, of the Outstanding Teaching Award from [[Cleveland State University]]'s College of Science. The College's Faculty Affairs Committee selected Walker as the first honoree based on his contributions to science education over the last 30 years.<ref name=ClevelandStater>{{cite news |last1=Antos |first1=Patrick |title='Flying Circus' lands Walker science award |url=http://www.csuohio.edu/class/com/clevelandstater/Archives/Vol%207/Issue%203/news/news4.html |accessdate=December 20, 2016 |work=The Cleveland Stater |date=July 7, 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100706073447/http://www.csuohio.edu/class/com/clevelandstater/Archives/Vol%207/Issue%203/news/news4.html |archive-date=July 6, 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The award was thereafter named "The Jearl Walker Outstanding Teaching Award" in his honor.<ref name=ClevelandStater/>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://flyingcircusofphysics.blogspot.com/ Walker's blog] 
*[http://facultyprofile.csuohio.edu/csufacultyprofile/detail.cfm?FacultyID=HRW His faculty profile which shows his photograph]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20160303204044/http://www.csuohio.edu/class/com/clevelandstater/Archives/Vol%207/Issue%203/images/walker3.jpg Another photograph] (in the middle)
*[http://www.wiley.com/college/phy/halliday320005/pdf/leidenfrost_essay.pdf Prof. Walker's essay about his stunts. Boiling water and the leidenfrost effect]
*[http://www.flyingcircusofphysics.com Website of his latest book ''Flying Circus of Physics''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130508195351/http://www.flyingcircusofphysics.com/ |date=2013-05-08 }}
*[http://www.flyingcircusofphysics.com/News/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsID=25 Bed of Nails Demonstration] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090502054207/http://www.flyingcircusofphysics.com/News/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsID=25 |date=2009-05-02 }}
*{{IMDb name|2683175}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Walker, Jearl}}
[[Category:1945 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:21st-century American physicists]]
[[Category:Cleveland State University faculty]]
[[Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni]]
[[Category:University of Maryland, College Park alumni]]
[[Category:American science communicators]]