J. Michael Walker, son of Edwin M. & Kathleen Donovan, was born in Pelham, Georgia on August 14, 1950, and reared in South Bend, Indiana. He received his B.A. from Indiana University in 1974, and his Ph.D. in psychology from Ohio State University in 1979. His post-doctoral studies were completed at the Mental Health Research Institute in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Dr. Walker joined the Department of Psychology at Brown University in 1983, only to later become the Department Chair. In 2004, he returned to Indiana University Bloomington where he served as the Linda and Jack Gill Chair of Neuroscience, Director of the Gill Center for Biomolecular Science, and Professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. Dr. Walker was one of the world’s leading experts on the molecular mechanisms of pain. Dr. Walker died in Bloomington on January 5, 2008.