Group Against Smog & Pollution

Hotline, Fall 2003

Walter Goldburg is a founding board member of GASP, and got involved because “clean air and clear skies mean a lot” to him.  During his long-term volunteering with GASP, Walter has served as GASP’s President twice in its 34-year history.  As an active board member and current 2nd Vice President, Walter mostly focuses on improving local air quality regulations and enforcement activities.  He has represented GASP on several committees, including the National Academy of Sciences’ Committee on Oversight of the EPA; the PA Air and Water Quality Advisory Committee; the Allegheny County Health Department’s Air Pollution Advisory Committee; and the Ad Hoc Environmental Task Force to the Allegheny County Board of Health.  A gifted writer, Walter also enjoys presenting GASP’s opinion through op-ed pieces in the newspaper and writing testimony on various issues.

Outside of GASP, Walter maintains a busy, active life.  On the activist front, he spends time working on social action issues at his temple.  Professionally, he has a doctorate in physics and recently retired from the University of Pittsburgh, but remains active as professor emeritus of physics.  He’s a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and in 1992 he received a Chancellor’s Distinguished Research Award from the University of Pittsburgh.

Walter’s leisure activities include fishing, the theater, music, and bicycling.  He can often be seen bicycling around East End neighborhoods, and he offers this story: “This past weekend, I stopped at a red light and while I was standing perfectly still, the bike tipped over, and I am a little bloodier for it.  Moral: keep moving.”