Keith Williams
About
I was born in Georgia, USA in 1972; moved shortly thereafter to the middle east (Jordan) and then southern Africa, including Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), Botswana, and South Africa, attending local/native schools throughout. I completed middle school education via correspondence with The Calvert School in Baltimore, Maryland. I then returned to the US for three years of high school.
I completed my MS degree in physics at the University of Kentucky in 1999; my studies included a one-year stipendium at the Ruprecht-Karls University in Heidelberg, Germany. My graduate work included two research appointments in Japan. I completed my Ph.D. in materials physics at Penn State University in 2001, and undertook postdoctoral research in the Molecular Biophysics Group at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, thereafter establishing a nanophysics laboratory in the physics department at the University of Virginia.
I became Program Manager and division CTO for the Materials, Corrosion, and Environmental Technologies Department of Leidos (f/k/a SAIC), based at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., while on leave from UVa. That work is ongoing and includes numerous projects.
I am deeply engaged in teaching and training young scientists and engineers, as well as university/ community projects with particular emphasis on experiential research. Some of this work work took place in my capacity of Resident Faculty Fellow in the Hereford Residential College, at the University of Virginia (2007-2010). I began a visiting professorship at the University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) in August 2012, in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
My recent teaching experience at UVa includes design of new maker-style introductory engineering curriculum, featuring hands-on design and build experience using CAD, 3D printing and related prototyping techniques in Introductory Engineering (ENGR 1620). I also helped implement embedded advising in UVa's introductory engineering curriculum; this effort has been very successful in assisting young students along their path of career development. I am pleased to note that all courses are very highly rated by students, and many of my former students remain in contact well after graduation.
Education
M.S. University of Kentucky, 1998
Ph.D. Penn State, 2001
Post-Doc Molecular Biophysics Group, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands, 2001-2004
"Foremost, I aim to support the growth and progress of young scientists and engineers; I enjoy ongoing communications with them long after graduation."