Rich Walker now an Associate Prof

I profiled Richard Walker PhD for X-Ray Magazine in April 2010. It's not often you talk to someone who has spent years modelling the Femoral Artery. It made for an interesting interview.

Walker's parents met through scuba diving. "From an early age, I can clearly remember gear lying around the house and playing with it in the bath. But in the 1970's children were not encouraged to go diving by BSAC, so it just didn't happen."

The trigger that got Walker scuba diving was the glimpse of a set of regs and a BCD hanging up in a colleagues office.

His diving career took an unexpected turn after he sought training from a 'serious name' in cave diving. The resulting course shook Walker. "It made me take a long cold hard stare at myself." Walker came out the other end a far better diver. Today Walker is a highly respected full-time technical instructor trainer. He is much in demand, travelling the world, teaching GUE courses and tomorrow's instructors. He is such a safe pair of hands, I would trust him to teach my mother to dive.

In 2014 Rich Walker recorded this EUROTEK TEKTalk, giving salient advice on what to look for and how to choose the right diving instructor for you.

Since July 2015 Rich Walker has also been the chairman of 'Ghost Fishing UK'.

This charity is dedicated to removing abandoned, lost or discarded fishing gear from the seas around the UK.

This fishing gear continues to catch marine life, and adds to the overall presence of plastics in the marine environment.

As part of this valuable environmental project Rich Walker has been working with Heriot-Watt University. Earlier this week the university confirmed that Rich Walker is now an Associate Professor for his work on ghost fishing. His honorary title in the School of Energy, Geoscience, Infrastructure and Society.