L-R: Dr. Daniel Tabor, Ambassador Diane Watson, L.A.’s Councilmember Curren Price, Dr. Bettye D. Walker, Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts Jr, Prof. Hildreth (Hal) Walker, Jr., and Dr. Kathryn Jeffery, President & Superintendent of Santa Monica College
Los Angeles, CA — Laser Scientist Hildreth (Hal) Walker, Jr., and his wife, STEM Pioneer Dr. Bettye Walker were honored by Inglewood’s Mayor James Butts, LA’s Councilmember Curren Price and California’s Congresswoman Maxine Waters recently at Santa Monica College (SMC). Both Butts and Price were in attendance to bestow government commendations and lavished them with heartfelt words for their lifetime commitment to teaching students around the world about the importance of learning science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), coupled with the arts.
Thirty minutes later, the Walkers back to taking care of their business, teaching Santa Monica College students in a Scientist Spotlight & Career Discovery Event, entitled “Launch! – Air & Space, STEM, and the Arts”. The program was a live Presentation of Air and Space Adventures with invited panelists discussing careers in STEM and the Arts, specifically featuring the careers and accomplishments of Prof. Hildreth “Hal” Walker Jr. and Dr. Bettye Davis Walker. The event was coordinated by Brian Hagerty, Director of the P3 Innovation Center, Irvine, CA. The MC was Ivor Dawson, founder of the Traveling Space Museum.
This presentation will be part of a “Scientist Spotlight” program that SMC has already been working on that they’d like to expand into other career exploration programs and a new partnership between the Walkers and SMC.
This first presentation of “Launch! Air & Space” theme included a special focus on Prof. Hal’s work at KORAD Lasers in Santa Monica and the Apollo 11 Lunar Laser Ranging project. Also covered was the Cape Town Space Society and the Traveling Space Museum, with a focus on careers in STEM and the Arts, from Science Fiction to Science Fact.
Prof. Hal Walker was the first person to successfully fired the KORAD-1500 Ruby Laser to the moon in 1969 during the Apollo 11 Moon Landing, when American astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin became the first humans ever to land on the moon. This major achievement, now known as the Lunar Ranging Experiment (LURE), was the only interactive planetary experiment that took place for the first Moon Landing. It is also one of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Milestones: #198. These milestones celebrate major accomplishments in the field of electrical engineering and reflect Walker’s importance to the field.
Dr. Bettye Davis Walker is an internationally renowned educational innovator, former University Professor and researcher, who has worked with students in Europe, West Africa, and most recently South Africa. The A-MAN STEM Program is an outgrowth of the first and only Pilot Educational Research Project that Dr. Walker received and directed which was funded by UCLA and focused on elementary school boys.
Dr. Walker is also a Rotarian and a board member of the Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA) Rotary Club. She has developed partnerships with Rotary Clubs in Vermont, Ohio, Canada, Cape Town and Pretoria, as well as coordinated the establishment of more than a dozen state of the art Computer Literacy Labs in schools throughout South Africa, funded by Rotary International.
The Walkers are co-founders of the African-
(A-MAN) STEM International Science Center and the Cape Town Space Society, a Chapter of the National Space Society, headquartered in Washington, D.C. A-MAN is dedicated to building the leaders and participants in science and technology for tomorrow. They share their legacy with girls and boys who are students and provide experiences that prepare them to attend higher academic institutions and begin fulfilling the nation’s leadership and technological needs.
In 1997, President Nelson Mandela invited the Hildreth and Bettye to establish and implement Science & Technology programs in townships in schools across South Africa.
Prof. Hal and Dr. Bettye made history again, on February 27, 2019, when South Africa welcomed the opening of the first chapter of the National Space Society (NSS) on the African Continent: The Cape Town Space Society (CTSS). Prof. Hal and Dr. Bettye Walker founded this first-ever Chapter.
Professor Hal and Dr. Bettye Walker are amazing people, with important stories to tell, as they move forward in the world of science and technology, generously sharing their knowledge with the world.
For additional information on A-MAN, visit their website at: http://www.aman.org
