Group Members
William J. (Chip) Walter
Chip recently joined the Institute for Green Science as Author in Residence and Senior Manager of Strategy and Educational Initiatives. He brings broad experience in education, business, science and communication to his work here. He is is an author, journalist, filmmaker and former CNN bureau chief. He has published three mainstream science books — Thumbs, Toes and Tears – And Other Traits That Make Us Human for Walker & Company; I’m Working on That; (Simon and Schuster), written with William Shatner; and Space Age for Random House, the companion volume to the prime time PBS series of the same title. Each book reaches out to mainstream audiences to explore scientific topics from rocketry to genetics, quantum physics to artificial intelligence, human evolution to laughing, kissing and crying.
Chip has also has served as National Programming Executive at WQED-TV, CEO of Digital Alchemy Inc., Vice-President and Executive Producer of ENGAGE Games Online and Senior Strategic Commications Manager at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). He is also an adjunct professor at Carnegie Mellon University where he sometimes teaches science writing. His writing has appeared in a variety of publications including The Economist, Scientific American, Scientific American Mind, Discovery and The Boston Globe among others.
Chip’s work as a filmmaker has included writing and directing several award-winning science documentaries for PBS, each produced in association with the National Academy of Sciences. Two of these include programs for the Emmy Award winning series Planet Earth, and a third for Infinite Voyage — the first PBS series to air on national commercial television. He helped to develop Infinite Voyage and produced its third program, Fires of the Mind, an investigation of the evolution of human intelligence. Variety called the show, “Handsomely produced, beautifully written … a fascinating hour.” The Village Voice wrote that it delivered “a sense of human accomplishment, which is the true ambition of science on the air.” He also developed the Space Age series for PBS station WQED, again with the National Academy of Sciences, before writing the series’ companion book. Following his work as a producer at WQED in Los Angeles, Chip served as the station’s Nation Programming Executive from 1991 to 1993 where he focused full-time on developing new national projects.
In the course of his career Chip has spent years doing serious research in an unusually diverse assortment of scientific fields and business ventures including anthropology, nanotechnology, digital media, online games, robotics, cybersecurity, online communications, wireless systems and computer science.
He has or currently contributes to many publications including The Boston Globe, The Economist, Technology Review, Scientific American and Discover Magazine. His writing, he says, “explores the collisions between humans and the increasingly powerful technologies we are creating. It plays at the intersection of innovation and popular culture.”
Chip has worked to oversee the development of creative and large scale websites, and the teams and production processes it takes to make them possible. In 2006 he was asked by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), the nation’s sixth largest, to revamp their website. He put together a team of 20 writers, artists and programmers who completely redesigned and redeployed what had formerly been an unwieldy, unattractive and difficult to navigate site into an award winning simple, attractive user-friendly site. He is currently tapping this experience to tackle the equally challenging job of developing a new website and online curriculum in green science for the Institute.
In addition to his work in television, the web and science writing, Chip spent part of his career as a Hollywood screenwriter. He’s sold screenplays to Columbia-Tri Star, Universal and Warner Bros.
Chip has also consulted with several nationally recognized organizations to develop creative online business strategies, content, and services in an effort to help them better understand the effects of emerging technologies on their business and customers. His clients have included The National Geographic Society, Ketchum Inc., Education Management Corporation, Xing Technologies and many other companies, large and small.
He feels that if we are to create a sustainable civilization, we have to begin by helping to train a new generation of scientists who can build the green technologies from the ground up that will become the foundation for sustainable living.
Chip has spoken at Xerox PARC, NASA, Harvard Law School and Carnegie Mellon University. He is a member of the Writers Guild of America and the National Association of Science Writers. He currently lives in Pittsburgh with his two daughters, Molly and Hannah.
For more information, examples of writing and links to books and documentaries, please visit: www.chipwalter.com.