At 15 years old, Walter was one of the youngest students of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, where he studied history and chemistry in 1825–28.
Subsequently, he studied at Berlin University, receiving a Ph.D. with his dissertation On Combination of Oxalic Acid and Alkali.
He served as adjutant to Colonel Samuel Różycki, commander of the 7th infantry regiment.
[2] In 1831, aged 21, he was named professor of chemistry at the Jagiellonian University, but he left to Paris where he worked with Jean-Baptiste Dumas at the École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures.
In sum, he isolated and studied 24 new chemical compounds, including toluene, biphenyl, nitrotoluene, cedrene, potassium hydroxide dihydrate, chromyl chloride, cumene, benzyl chloride, benzyl bromide, and menthene.