Michael D. Williams

Michael D. Williams is currently Chair of the Department of Physics at Clark Atlanta University, a historically Black college or university (HBCU). He is Professor and Director of the Center of Excellence in Materials Physics. He received dual B.S. degrees in physics from Morehouse College (1979) and nuclear Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology (1979). Michael received his Ph.D. in physics from Stanford University (1987) under the late Bill Spicer. Prior to his academic appointment, he was a researcher in the corporate sector of our constituency.

He was a member of technical staff in the Optoelectronics Research Department of the former AT&T Bell Laboratories. He joined AT&T in 1987 after completing an appointment as a visiting scientist at IBM's Almaden Research. His research interests are focused on achieving a fundamental understanding of the physical processes, growth morphology, interfacial strain and electronic structure modifications that occur at the surfaces and interfaces of epitaxially grown films and semiconductors. His most recent work investigates the growth morphology and processing of 2-D metal dichalcogenides.

Michael has been a long-standing member of AVS since his graduate studies at Stanford. He has served the AVS national organization in a wide variety of leadership and service roles including AVS Director, AVS Trustee, AVS Liaison to the AIP Liaison Committee on Under-represented Minorities, Chair of the AVS Diversity and Inclusion Committee, Executive Officer for the Electronics Materials and Processing Division, Chair of the AVS Chapters, Divisions and Groups (CDG) Committee and most recently as Chair of the Governance Committee. He served at the local chapter level as an Executive Officer for the Tennessee Valley Chapter. As CDG Chair, he oversaw the addition of the Hudson Mohawk Chapter, the rejuvenation of the Texas and Tennessee Chapters, and the addition of four student chapters: Alabama, Central Florida, Washington, and UCLA.