Michael (Mike) Walker is an instructor in mechanical engineering and environmental engineering at University of Colorado Boulder. He joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering in January 2019 and currently serves as the Director for the Energy Engineering minor in the college.
Walker received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign and a PhD in chemical engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. His thesis research was focused on evaluating the economic impact of increased condenser fouling in thermoelectric power plants that utilize municipal wastewater for cooling. His research also focused on the development of a coal conversion process,Dry Gasification Oxycombustion Power Cycle (DGOC) that can achieve carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) with decreased water consumption and increased thermal efficiency as compared to contemporary CCS-fitted power generation technologies.
Walker then went on to a postdoctoral fellowship at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. His work at Northwestern focused on energy consumption in food manufacturing systems and energy-water relationships in industrial steam systems. During this time, Walker worked with the California Air Resources Board to establish product-based benchmarking for major energy-consuming food manufacturers in California under the state’s carbon cap-and-trade program.
Walker joined University of Colorado Boulder in 2014 and has been teaching Thermodynamics 2 and Sustainable Energy for mechanical engineering as well as Senior Capstone Design for environmental engineering. In 2017, Walker received the John and Mercedes Peebles Innovation in Education Award from the College of Engineering and Applied Science as well as the Marinus Smith Award for service from the University of Colorado. In 2019 Walker received the Environmental Engineering Faculty Appreciation Award.
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