Jim Walker (JSW) is Senior Research Associate in the BARC group.

After graduating from the University of Bristol with a BSc in Chemistry (2006) and MSc Earth Systems Science (2009), JSW completed a PhD under the supervision of Professors Jonathan Reid and Andrew Orr-Ewing in 2013. During his PhD he focused on developing novel optical experimental methods to investigate the behaviour of single aerosols particles. After graduating JSW collaborated with an industrial partner to commercialise the Aerosol Optical Tweezers technique as part of an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Impact Acceleration Award.

Following this JSW spent several years working in industry as a Project Scientist and Product Manager, with responsibilities for designing scientific commercial aerosol and meteorological instrumentation, often in collaboration with academic colleagues. After splitting his time between industry and academia from 2017, he returned to the University of Bristol on a fulltime basis in 2019 and has since worked on a range of EPSRC and European Research Council (ERC) funded projects. He specialises in single aerosol particle instrument and technique development, with research interests ranging from fundamental processes, drying kinetics, respiratory disease transmission and aerosol mass spectrometry.

JSW has over 20 peer reviewed publications as of 2023 with an h-index of 15 and has also published trade journal articles, industry focused white papers and application notes. He maintains close links with industry.