Hodgkins Medal, Smithsonian Institution, 1973 International Environmental Leadership Medal, United Nations, 1982 1956–1990 Professor of Astrogeophysics, University of Colorado (active, on leave or emeritus) 1960–1968 Director, National Center for Atmospheric Research 1960–1973 Chief Executive Officer and President, University Corporation for Scientific Research 1968–1969 President, American Association for the Advancement of Science Walter Orr Roberts (August 20, 1915 – March 12, 1990) was an American astronomer and atmospheric physicist, as well as an educator, philanthropist, and builder.

[4] He attained a Bachelor's degree in Physics from Amherst College in 1938, and a Masters and PhD in astronomy from Harvard University in 1940 and 1943.

HAO launched an Institute of Solar-Terrestrial Relations in January 1956 for a four-year period “to study the effects of the sun on weather with the hope that from this work would come an improvement in weather or climate forecasting based on analysis of variations in the emissions from the sun.” [8] Subsequently he was the founding president of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) and first director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).

Boulder was chosen as the site for NCAR, and Roberts was named its inaugural director in 1960 (while continuing to direct HAO).

[10] “The basic purposes of NCAR are: (1) to conduct fundamental research on the processes of the atmosphere on a scope beyond that yet attempted; (2) to provide, or arrange for the provision of, research facilities, to be open to all scientists, that are beyond the capacity of universities or most research groups to acquire or maintain; (3) to provide a center at which various groups in the atmospheric sciences and closely related fields may meet to define goals and plan programs.”[11] The Colorado Legislature appropriated $250,000 to buy 500 acres beneath the Flatirons just south of Boulder (known as Table Mountain) for the new center.

Greenhouse Glasnost, which was discussed at a 1989 Sundance Symposium on Global Climate Change, was one outcome of this international exchange.

[18] From 1974–1981, Roberts served as Director for the Program of Food, Climate, and the World's Future at the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies.

He taught a course in world environmental problems, which was conducted by computer communications, for the Western Behavioral Sciences Institute in La Jolla, California, from 1982–1990.

The Climate Club: A Collection of 299 Provocations Written by Walter Orr Roberts as They Appeared in WBSI Teleconferences Between May 1984 and February 1990 was published by the Western Behavioral Sciences Institute in 1990.

After failing to obtain a security clearance in 1950, he spent a day and a half at the Pentagon where he was “accused of having a close and sympathetic association with known Communist fronts”.