CSU professor Diana Wall, a leader in environmental science and sustainability, has died

Well-known environmental scientist and Colorado State University professor Diana Harrison Wall died Monday, university officials said. She was 80 years old.

The cause and location of her death were not immediately available Wednesday afternoon, a CSU spokesperson said.

Wall lived in Fort Collins and was a distinguished professor of biology at CSU who specialized in soil ecology. She traveled to Antarctica annually for three months every year for 25 years to study the dry valleys of Antarctica, according to a 2014 Coloradoan profile about Wall and her work. Antarctica’s Wall Valley was named in her honor in 2004, according to Source, an online publication of CSU’s marketing and communications team.

Wall was the inaugural director of CSU’s School of Global and Environmental Sustainability, which was launched in 2008 to combine the education and research efforts of CSU students, faculty and staff in a wide range of disciplines to address interrelated challenges to global sustainability, including food security, poverty, inequality, water quality and use, desertification, clean energy, climate change, biodiversity, globalization, industrial ecology, sustainable engineering, population growth and urbanization, according to the school’s website.

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“Diana was not only a brilliant ecologist but also kind, and she treated people and the planet with utmost respect,” CSU President Amy Parsons told Source. “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’s research work focused on exploring how life in soil — microbial and invertebrate diversity — "contributes to healthy, fertile and productive soils," according to biographical information on the Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative website. She was particularly interested in the consequences of human activities on soil globally. Her research on soil biota, particularly nematodes — microscopic worms found in nearly all habitats — extended from agroecosystems supporting food production to arid ecosystems.

Wall developed the first Global Soil Biodiversity Atlas, containing facts and photos of earthworms, fungal species and soil-based bacteria. A 2016 feature story on Wall and her work in the journal Nature described her as “one of the most celebrated and outspoken experts on the hidden biodiversity in dirt.”

Wall was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences and Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame. She also was a recipient of the Ulysses Medal in 2015 from the University College of Dublin for work that has made an outstanding global contribution, the 2013 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement and the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research President’s Medal for outstanding achievement in Antarctic science.

Wall is originally from North Carolina. She earned a bachelor’s degree in biology and Ph.D. in plant pathology from the University of Kentucky, according to her curriculum vitae.

Family members were working on funeral arrangements, the CSU spokesperson said.

Reporter Kelly Lyell covers education, breaking news, some sports and other topics of interest for the Coloradoan. Contact him at kellylyell@coloradoan.com, x.com/KellyLyell and  facebook.com/KellyLyell.news. 

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: CSU professor, well-known environmental scientist Diana Wall has died