He earned his A.B. degree in biology from Harvard University in 1965. As an undergraduate, he worked with E. O. Wilson and published a first author paper in the journal Nature, where he and his colleagues described the composition of the fire ant trail substance.[3] He went on to graduate school at Rockefeller University, where he earned his Ph.D. in life science in 1970.[2][4][5]
Walsh was born in Boston and went to Roxbury Latin School. Walsh died following a fall on January 10, 2023, at the age of 78. He was married to Diana Chapman Walsh who was the president of Wellesley College from 1993 to 2007. They have one daughter, Allison Kurian, a professor of medicine and epidemiology at Stanford University.[5][9]
Notable publications
Books
Enzymatic Reaction Mechanisms (1978). Published by Freeman Inc (ISBN978-0-7167-0070-8).
Antibiotics: Actions, Origins, Resistance (2003), by Christopher Walsh. Published by ASM Press (ISBN978-1-55581-254-6).
Post-translation Modification of Proteins: Expanding Nature's Inventory (2006), by C.T. Walsh. Published by Roberts and Company (ISBN0-9747077-3-2).[10]