Frances Ann Walker was an American chemist known for her work on heme protein chemistry. She was an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Chemical Society.

Education and career

Walker was born in Ohio and grew up there, graduating from Adena High School in 1958. Walker has a B.A. in chemistry from College of Wooster (1962). In 1966 she earned her Ph.D. in chemistry from Brown University. From 1967 until 1970 she was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles, and an assistant professor at Ithaca College. She then moved to San Francisco State University, where she was promoted to professor in 1976. Subsequently, she moved to the University of Arizona, where she was named regents professor in 2001, and then she retired in 2013.

During her course of her career, Walker worked at variety of educational institutions, where she was responsible for conducting and teaching chemistry classes. She made a significant contribution to the development of the inorganic and bioinorganic chemistry research programs at the University of Arizona though her work there. Further, she was responsible for supervising postdoctoral research as well as graduate students, there by contributing to the development of the next generation of scientist working field.

Research

Walker's research centered on bio-inorganic chemistry, especially heme protein chemistry. Walker examined proteins in bloodsucking insects and cytochromes that transfer energy between cells. Walker's early work was on porphyrins and their complexation with iron. She was able to obtain structural information about metal-binding proteins. A portion of her work relied on nuclear magnetic resonance, especially paramagnetic nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, which she used to examine model heme and systems with proteins coupled to heme.

Walker's research also helped people understand better how spectroscopic techniques can be used to study complicated biological systems. By combining experimental data with in-depth chemical analysis, she helped show how techniques like electron paramagnetic resonance and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy could show important details about how metalloproteins work and how they made. Her work helped make these methods useful for studying metal-based biological chemistry.

Awards and honors

Walker was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1984. In 2000 she received the Garvan–Olin Medal for scientific accomplishments by a woman chemist from the American Chemical Society. In 2006 she received the Alfred Bader Award in Bioinorganic Chemistry, and in 2011 she was elected a fellow of the American Chemical Society. The Society of Porphyrins and Phthalocyanines awarded her the Eraldo Antonini Award for lifetime achievement award in 2020.

Selected publications

  • Walker, Frances Ann (1970). . Journal of the American Chemical Society. 92 (14): 4235–4244. doi:. ISSN .
  • Walker, F. Ann; Lo, Man-Wai; Ree, Molly T. (1976). . Journal of the American Chemical Society. 98 (18): 5552–5560. doi:. ISSN . PMID .
  • Walker, F. Ann; Boi Hanh, Huynh; Scheidt, W. Robert; Osvath, Sarah R. (1 August 1986). . Journal of the American Chemical Society. 108 (17): 5288–5297. doi:. ISSN .
  • Ribeiro, José M. C.; Hazzard, Jo M. H.; Nussenzveig, Roberto H.; Champagne, Donald E.; Walker, F. Ann (23 April 1993). . Science. 260 (5107): 539–541. Bibcode:. doi:. ISSN . PMID .
  • Walker, F. Ann (1 May 1999). . Coordination Chemistry Reviews. 185–186: 471–534. doi:. ISSN .
  • Walker, F. Ann (1 February 2004). . Chemical Reviews. 104 (2): 589–616. doi:. ISSN . PMID .