BIO:Dr. Robert Williams is the Distinguished Research Scholar of the Space Telescope Science
Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, MD, having served as Director of the Institute from 1993-98. The
Institute, together with Goddard Space Flight Center, operates the Hubble Space Telescope for
NASA. Before assuming his present position Williams spent 8 years in Chile as Director of the
Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, the national observatory of the U.S. in the southern
hemisphere. Previous to that time he was Professor of Astronomy at the University of Arizona in Tucson for 18 years. Dr. Williams' research specialties are nebulae, novae, and emission-line spectroscopy and analysis. He is a strong advocate for science education and outreach, and he lectures widely around the world on the many recent discoveries about the universe from Hubble Telescope and NASA space probes.
Williams received his undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 1962,
and a Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of Wisconsin in 1965. He was a Senior Fulbright
Professor at University College London from 1971-72, and received the Alexander von Humboldt
Award from the German government in 1991. In 1998 he was awarded the Beatrice Tinsley Prize
of the American Astronomical Society for his leadership of the Hubble Deep Field project, which
revealed the early universe with Hubble Telescope. For this project he was awarded the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal in 1999.
Dr. Williams is currently President of the International Astronomical Union, headquartered in
Paris, which is the sole world-wide organization serving all professional astronomers and
promoting international astronomy.