In Memory
Diana Wall, groundbreaking soil ecologist who left a lifetime legacy at Colorado State University
by Nik Olsen
published March 26, 2024
Diana Wall, one of the world’s most internationally respected environmental scientists and inaugural director of Colorado State University’s School of Global Environmental Sustainability, passed away March 25.
“Diana was not only a brilliant ecologist, but also kind, and she treated people and the planet with utmost respect,” said President Amy Parsons. “She could have excelled at any institution in the world, and we are so honored and grateful that she chose Colorado State University. Our entire university community grieves as we reflect on the life, loss and legacy of Diana Wall. Her impact will forever be felt across our university and around the world.”
Wall was an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the 2013 Laureate of the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement. In 2004, as recognition for her work on the continent, she had an Antarctic feature named after her: Wall Valley.
Wall, a professor of biology and University Distinguished Professor at CSU, was a soil ecologist who spent her research career in the dry valleys of Antarctica, where she and her team showed that soil nematodes — microscopic roundworms — represent the top of the terrestrial food chain.
For more than 25 years, Wall and her colleagues researched in the Antarctic McMurdo Dry Valleys, and the Wall Lab at CSU helped clarify the critical links between climate change and soil biodiversity.
Her interdisciplinary research uncovered dramatic impacts to invertebrate communities in response to climate change, the key role nematode species play in soil carbon turnover, and how they survive such extreme environments.
“Diana was not only a brilliant ecologist, but also kind, and she treated people and the planet with utmost respect. She could have excelled at any institution in the world, and we are so honored and grateful that she chose Colorado State University.”
In 2008, when he was serving as provost, Colorado State University System Chancellor Tony Frank asked Wall to help create a university-wide school to address global environmental challenges.
“The environment has lost a leading advocate,” Frank said. “The National Academy lost a great scientist. CSU lost a University Distinguished Professor and transformational member of our community. Many of us lost a precious friend. But Diana’s impact will live on in her work, her students and the planet she fought to protect.”
Wall began her research in Antarctica in 1989. She arrived at CSU in 1993 and went on to hold several research and leadership positions, including director of the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory.
“When Diana Wall was appointed the director of SoGES, we knew an outstanding scientist would be leading our sustainability efforts,” said Rick Miranda, senior vice president. “What we didn’t fully appreciate was the ultimate impact that she would have — not only on our campus, but internationally. She was tireless — right up to the very end; she was inspiring — to many young scientists who worked with her, to her colleagues, and to her peers (who were few); she was a great communicator — to local and global audiences, to students and to experts; and she was generous — with her time, her resources, her encouragement and her ideas. I suppose her last gift to us is a challenge: to maintain and improve the trajectory of the wonderful work she did.”
Wall was scientific chair of the Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative, which, with the European Union Joint Research Initiative, released the “Global Soil Biodiversity Atlas” in May 2016 at the United Nations Environment Assembly in Nairobi, Kenya.
“There are few people we meet in a lifetime who are as extraordinary as Diana Wall. She truly was a giant among us,” said Provost and Executive Vice President Marion Underwood. “You would never know that from Diana, but everyone around her could see it, and her influential work revealed it. Diana changed the lives of those who knew her, and as a scientist she changed our world.”
Wall’s extraordinary knowledge and understanding of our planet and its environment was recognized through international accolades. At CSU, she was well-known as an educator who was a generous and inspirational teacher and dedicated mentor.
“Diana was a real force on campus, and I always loved her enthusiasm for science,” said Jan Leach, professor of agricultural biology in the College of Agricultural Sciences and fellow UDP at CSU. “She cared about people, and she promoted them – from students to fellow faculty – in all ways she could. She was an important mentor for many of us. Diana truly was a gift to CSU. Through her work at SoGES, she provided a strong connection to the local community. Her national and international reputation raised all of us up. We will feel her loss for some time.”
Wall’s wit and humor allowed her to make meaningful connections. She had the ability to bring people together from across campus, around the Fort Collins community through her monthly science chats at Avogadro’s Number, and her vast network of international colleagues, who she worked with to implement new ideas to address environmental challenges.
“She was passionate about what she could offer sustainability,” said Kathy Galvin, director of The Africa Center at CSU and a CSU UDP. “She would take ideas she learned while traveling the world and bring it back and implement them through SoGES.”
“The environment has lost a leading advocate. The National Academy lost a great scientist. CSU lost a University Distinguished Professor and transformational member of our community. Many of us lost a precious friend. But Diana’s impact will live on in her work, her students and the planet she fought to protect.”
Wall was also a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences and a recipient of the Ulysses Medal and the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research President’s Medal for Outstanding Achievement in Antarctic Science. In 2016, Wall also was named Honorary Member by the British Ecological Society. In 2019, she was awarded BES’ President’s Medal, among numerous other honors over the years. She was inducted into the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame in the class of 2014.
Wall grew up in North Carolina and earned her doctorate degree in plant pathology from the University of Kentucky, Lexington.
Diana Wall at CSU
