Karl Walther was a glassblower for Columbia University and Brookhaven National Laboratory. During the Manhattan Project, Walther worked as a senior glassblower at the Nash Garage Building at Columbia, where scientists developed the gaseous diffusion process. He supervised a young lab assistant named James Forde.
In 1947, Walther joined the Physics Department at Brookhaven National Laboratory. After more than 40 years at Brookhaven, he retired in 1989 as a glassblowing specialist in the Instrumentation Division. In his honor, the American Scientific Glassblowers Society annually presents the Karl Walther Award for the best article published in their quarterly journal.