Vita – Dr. ROBERT WILLIAMS
Space Telescope Science Institute
3700 San Martin Drive
Baltimore, MD 21218
Phone: (410) 338-4963
e-mail:
Birthdate/Place: 14 October 1940 - Dunsmuir, California, USA
Education: 1962 B.A. - University of California, Berkeley
1965 Ph.D. - University of Wisconsin, Madison
THESIS: The Ionization and Thermal Equilibrium of a Gas
Excited by Ultraviolet Synchrotron Radiation
(Advisor: D.E. Osterbrock)
Employment: 1998- Distinguished Research Scholar - STScI
1993-Adjunct Professor – The Johns Hopkins University
1993-1998 Director - Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)
1985-1993 Director - Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory,
La Serena, CHILE
1984-1985 NRC Senior Research Fellow - NASA-Ames Research
Center
1983-1984 Visiting Research Associate - European Southern
Observatory, Garching, GERMANY
1978-1983 Professor - University of Arizona, Tucson
1969-1978 Associate Professor - University of Arizona
1965-1969 Assistant Professor - University of Arizona
1962-1965 Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation Fellow - Univ.
of Wisconsin
1960-1962 Research Assistant - University of California,
Berkeley
Societies: International Astronomical Union
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Phi Beta Kappa
American Astronomical Society
National
Service: Chairman, U.S. National Fulbright Comm., Astronomy (1974-78)
CTIO Telescope Allocation Committee (1976-78)
KPNO Telescope Allocation Committee (1978-80)
CTIO Users Committee (1978-81)
AAS Education Advisory Board (1981-83)
NSF Minority Graduate Fellowship Panel (1982-85)
Trustee/Treasurer, Aspen Center for Physics (1982-88)
U.S. Natl. Comm. - IAU (1990-92)
AAS Comm. on Astronomy and Public Policy (1994-2000)
NASA Blue Ribbon Advisory Committee on ExNPS (1995)
Space Studies Board - Nat'l. Res. Council (1995-98)
Trustee/Exec. Comm. - Associated Universities, Inc. (1997-2002)
Visiting Comm. - CfA/Harvard Astronomy Dept. (1998-2003)
Chair, SIRTF Science Center Advisory Comm. (1999)
Vice-President, American Astronom. Society (2000-2003)
Vice-President, International Astron. Union (2000-2006)
Steering Comm., Australian Telescope Nat'l Facility (2001-2003)
NRC Comm. on Organization and Management of Research in
Astronomy & Astrophysics (2001)
U.S. Gemini Sci. Advisory Comm. (2001-2005)
Keck Observatory Visiting Committee (2002)
Fachbeirat, Chair (Vis. Comm.), Max Planck Institut fur Astrophysik,
Heidelberg (2002- )
Director Search Committee, NRAO (2002)
Director Search Committee, NAIC/Arecibo (2002)
Director Search Committee, ASIAA/Academica Sinica, Taiwan (2002)
Director Search Committee, Australia Teles. Nat’l. Facility (2002)
Gruber Cosmology Prize, Advisory Board (2002-2005)
Director Search Committee, Anglo-Australian Observatory (2003)
Chair, NASA IRTF/Keck Mgt. & Operns. Working Group (2004-2007)
Chair, ESO Visiting Committee (2003-2006)
Amer. Astron. Society, Nominating Comm. (2006- )
Extremely Large Telescope (ELR) Review Committee, ESO-Garching (2006- )
SKA Site Selection Committee (2006)
President-elect, International Astronomical Union (2006- )
ALPACA Project Review Committee, SUNY-SB Univ. (2006)
Chair, ESO Director Search Committee (2006)
NSF Math/Physical Sciences Advisory Committee (2006- )
ALMA Project Review Board (2007)
Chair, ALMA Director Search Committee (2008)
Comm. to Review Australian Optical Astronomy (2008)
Chair, Academica Sinica Inst. Of Astron. & Astrophy. Review (2009)
Honors/Awards/
Lectureships: Dorothy Klumpke Roberts Prize - Univ. Calif., Berkeley (1962)
Senior Fulbright Professor - University College London (1972-73)
Alexander von Humboldt Research Scholar - Landessternwarte,
Heidelberg (1991-92)
Bunyan Lecturer - Stanford University (1995)
Heinz Pagels Memorial Lecturer - Aspen Physics Center (1995)
Lowell Lecturer - Boston Museum of Science (1996)
Univ. of Maryland Distinguished Lecturer (1996)
Marlar Prize & Lecturer – Rice University (1997)
Evnin Lecturer - Princeton University (1997)
Nat'l Undergraduate Research Convocation Lecturer - Univ. of
Texas (1997)
Invited Discourse, IAU General Assembly - Kyoto, Japan (1997)
Elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1997)
Carl von Siemens Foundation Lecturer - Munich (1997)
Walker-Ames Distinguished Professor – Univ. of Washington (1998)
President's Distinguished Lecturer - Univ. of Victoria (1998)
Beatrice Tinsley Prize -- Amer. Astron. Soc. (1998)
Visiting Fellow - Australian National Univ., Canberra (1999)
Edmond Halley Lecturer - University of Oxford, UK (1999)
NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal (1999)
Ludwig Biermann Lecturer - MPI fur Astrophysik, Garching (1999)
Amer. Astron. Soc. Centennial Lecturer (2000 )
Sturm Prize & Lecturer – Wesleyan University (2001)
C.V. Raman Chair & Lectureship – Indian Academy of Sciences (2003/4)