All articles starting with W
11,426 articles
Walter Lincoln Hawkins
Walter Lincoln Hawkins was an American polymer chemist at Bell Labs who developed stabilizers that let polyethylene replace lead as telephone cable sheathing, saving about $1.8 billion.
Walter Lippmann
Walter Lippmann (1889–1974), American journalist, co-founder of The New Republic, and two-time Pulitzer winner; his 1922 book Public Opinion introduced the pseudo-environment and popularized stereotypes in media theory, and he popularized the term Cold War.
Walter Lovenberg
Walter Lovenberg is a biochemist at NIH's National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute known for studies of rubredoxin and of tetrahydrobiopterin in catecholamine and serotonin synthesis.
Walter M. Elsasser
Walter M. Elsasser (1904–1991) was a German-born American theoretical physicist who founded the generally accepted dynamo theory of Earth's magnetism and received the National Medal of Science in 1987.
Walter M. Fitch
Walter M. Fitch (1929–2011) was an American molecular biologist regarded as the founder of molecular phylogenetics, whose 1967 Science paper first built evolutionary trees from protein sequences.
Walter M. Wonham
Walter M. Wonham, also known as Walter Murray Wonham, was a Canadian control theorist at the University of Toronto, known for founding geometric control theory and supervisory control of discrete-event systems.
Walter Mahlendorf
Walter Mahlendorf (born 4 January 1935, Sarstedt) is a retired West German sprinter, Hannover 96, Olympic 4x100 m relay gold medalist at Rome 1960 (39.5 =WR, third leg) and 1958 European relay champion.
Walter Marty
Walter Marty (born 15 August 1910), American high jumper, Fresno State; set ratified high jump world records of 2.04 m (1933, Fresno) and 2.06 m (1934, Palo Alto) using the Western roll; not the Swiss boxer Walter Marti.
Walter Matthau
Walter Matthau (born Walter John Matthow, 1920–2000), American actor with the hangdog face; Oscar winner for The Fortune Cookie, two-time Tony winner, and Jack Lemmon's comedy partner from The Odd Couple to Grumpy Old Men.
Walter Mazzarri
Walter Mazzarri, Italian football coach and former midfielder (born 1961, San Vincenzo). Led Napoli 2009-2013 to the 2012 Coppa Italia and 2013 Serie A runners-up; later Inter, Watford, Torino, Cagliari, a 2023-24 Napoli return, and Iraklis.
Walter McMillian
Walter McMillian ("Johnny D") was a Monroeville, Alabama logger wrongfully convicted of Ronda Morrison's 1986 murder, sentenced to death by judicial override, and exonerated in 1993 after six years on death row.
Walter Mercado
Walter Mercado (1932–2019), also known as Shanti Ananda, was a Puerto Rican astrologer, actor, and dancer whose televised daily horoscopes, flamboyant capes, and 'mucho, mucho amor' sign-off reached millions across Latin America and US Spanish-language TV.
Walter Meyer
Walter Meyer (Walter Friedrich Meyer, 1904-1949), German rower, Olympic gold medalist in the men's coxed fours at Los Angeles 1932 for the Berlin Rowing Club; later a Nazi Party member who died in Buchenwald internment.
Walter Mischel
Walter Mischel (1930–2018) was an Austrian-born American clinical psychologist at Columbia University, best known for the marshmallow test and for his work on the person–situation debate in personality psychology.
Walter Mitty
Walter Mitty is James Thurber's fictional henpecked daydreamer from "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" (The New Yorker, 1939), now a byword for ineffectual fantasists, adapted to film in 1947 (Danny Kaye) and 2013 (Ben Stiller).
Walter Model
Walter Model (1891–1945), German Generalfeldmarschall, Hitler's defensive specialist on the Eastern and Western Fronts; Rzhev, Kursk, Ardennes; committed Nazi, suicide in the Ruhr pocket.
Walter Mondale
Walter "Fritz" Mondale (1928-2021), 42nd US vice president under Jimmy Carter, Minnesota senator and 1984 Democratic nominee with Geraldine Ferraro; redefined the vice presidency with a West Wing office and full presidential access.
Walter Morley Fletcher
Walter Morley Fletcher (1873–1933) was a Cambridge physiologist who, with Frederick Hopkins, showed how muscle forms and removes lactic acid, and led the Medical Research Council from 1914.
Walter Mosley
Walter Ellis Mosley is an American author best known for the Easy Rawlins mysteries set in postwar Los Angeles, beginning with his 1990 debut Devil in a Blue Dress.
Walter Munk
Walter Munk (Walter Heinrich Munk) was an Austrian-born American physical oceanographer who spent eight decades at Scripps, devising the D-Day wave forecasts and founding modern oceanography.
Walter Murch
Walter Murch, American film editor and sound designer (born 1943, New York City), known for Apocalypse Now, The Godfather trilogy, The Conversation, and The English Patient, on which he became the only person to win Oscars for both film editing and sound for the same film.
Walter Murray Gibson
Walter Murray Gibson (1822–1888) was an American adventurer and politician who founded a Mormon colony on Lanai and led the Kingdom of Hawaii's cabinet under King Kalakaua.
Walter Murray Wonham
Walter Murray Wonham (1934–2023) was a Canadian control theorist and University Professor Emeritus at Toronto, founder of geometric control and, with Peter Ramadge, supervisory control theory.
Walter Naegle
Walter Naegle (born 1949) is an American artist and photographer, partner of civil rights leader Bayard Rustin; he secured Rustin's 2013 posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom and leads the Bayard Rustin Fund.
Walter Neupert
Walter Neupert (1939–2019) was a German biochemist who founded the field of mitochondrial protein import, holding the Physiological Chemistry chair at LMU Munich from 1983 to 2010.
Walter Nixon
Walter L. Nixon Jr. (born 1928), federal district judge in Mississippi, impeached and removed by the Senate in 1989 after a perjury conviction; his case produced Nixon v. United States (1993).
Walter Noddack
Walter Noddack was a German chemist who discovered the element rhenium in 1925 with Ida Tacke and Otto Berg, and also claimed element 43, masurium, a rejected claim.
Walter O. Spitzer
Walter O. Spitzer (1937–2006) was a Paraguayan-born physician and epidemiologist who chaired McGill's epidemiology department and led landmark studies of asthma drugs and nurse practitioners.
Walter O'Brien
Walter O'Brien is an Irish-born technology consultant who founded Scorpion Computer Services in Los Angeles and was the inspiration for the CBS drama Scorpion (2014–2018).
Walter Pagel
Walter Pagel (1898–1983) was a German-born British pathologist and historian of medicine who wrote around 120 works on tuberculosis and major studies of Paracelsus and van Helmont.