Olivier Walther, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Geography

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

2024 Awardee

Olivier Walther has spent years studying African geopolitics with a focus on cross-border trade and the emergence of transnational political violence in West Africa. His work has had a palpable impact on the region’s people and organizations.

Walther began working at UF as a visiting associate professor in the Center for African Studies in 2017. In 2019, he accepted a position as assistant professor in the Department of Geography and is now an associate professor.

Walther helped establish a long-term partnership with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to conduct research on trade in North and West Africa. He considers that to be his biggest achievement, but it is just one of the ways he has helped shape policies. Walther’s work has influenced the United Nations and was the foundation for its Border Stability Mechanism program in West Africa. He has helped strengthen UF’s ties to Africa, founding the African Networks Lab and building the university’s expertise in spatial and social network analysis on the continent.

As his expertise would suggest, Walther has spent a lot of time in West Africa immersing himself in work. He has amassed millions of dollars in research grants for field work, studying the effects of armed conflict, terrorism, urbanization and regional trade.

Walther has authored two books — a 2008 work about cross-border trade and one in 2018 that covered African border disputes. He has written several reports as part of his partnership with OECD, dozens of research papers, several book reviews and chapters and has contributed to issues of the West African Papers.

“Walther’s record bespeaks the kind of person who adds to the intellectual life and scholarly profile of a department,” says Jane Southworth, a professor and chair of the Department of Geography.