Jearl Walker
Jearl Walker, born 1945, is a physicist noted for his book Flying Circus of Physics, first published in 1975; the second edition was published in June 2006. He teaches physics at Cleveland State University.
Walker has also revised and edited the textbook Fundamentals of Physics with David Halliday and Robert Resnick. The Halliday, Resnick and Walker textbook has been well-known to science and engineering students for decades as "the gold standard" of sophomore-level physics texts.
Jearl Walker is a well known popularizer of physics, and appeared several times on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Walker is notorious for his popular yet controversial physics demonstrations. He has been known to stick his hand in molten lead, walk barefoot over hot coals, lie on a bed of nails, and pour freezing-cold liquid nitrogen in his mouth to demonstrate various principles of physics. Such demonstrations are included in his PBS series, "Kinetic Karnival," produced by WVIZ in Cleveland, Ohio.
Walker had authored the very popular Amateur Scientist column in Scientific American magazine from 1978 to 1988. During the latter part of this period, he had been the Chairman of the Physics Department at Cleveland State University.
Walker's physics antics have amazed and delighted his students for years, and have made him one of the most popular professors at CSU.
Dr Walker is the first recipient of the Outstanding Teaching Award from Cleveland State's College of Science. The College's Faculty Affairs Committee selected Dr. Walker as the first honoree based on his impressive contributions to science teaching over the last 30 years. In fact, the award in future years will be named the Jearl Walker Outstanding Teaching Award in recognition of his many achievements. The award was presented in a ceremony on April 29, 2005.
