Dr. Peter Walter is a German-American molecular biologist and biochemist who is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Investigator and a Professor at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

Peter studied at the Freie Universität Berlin and went on to Vanderbilt University for his MS in Organic Chemistry in 1977 and The Rockefeller University for his Ph.D. in Cell Biology in 1981.

Walter is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, and the National Academy of Inventors, as well as the National Academy of Medicine. The 2014 Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine, the 2014 Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research, the 2015 Vilcek Prize in Biomedical Science, the 2018 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, and the 2020 UCSF Lifetime Achievement in Mentoring Award are just a few of his recent honours.