Nobel Prize "for discovering the enzymatic mechanism behind the synthesis of the ATP (adenosine triphosphate)".
The ATP is the energetic exchange coin of our body. Searching for an analogy with the functioning of a country, we could say that the ATP is the euro inside our body. In the same way that the euro governs the economic movement of a society, the ATP governs the life of an organism: almost any process taking place in it must consume energy, and this energy is available thanks to the ATP.
Walker was who determined the sequence of proteins and the structure of the enzymes that cause the formation of the ATP, a key work for the understanding of the functioning of living beings and which deserved the highest recognitions.
He is one of the outstanding figures of the current molecular biology, one of the most active fields of the world science. The choice was done because of the activity in this field within the USC, some of it in collaboration with Walker.