Christopher Leigh Williams is an American medical physicist and NASA astronaut candidate. He resides in Boston, Massachusetts.
Christopher Williams | |
|---|---|
.jpg) NASA portrait, 2021 | |
| Born | Christopher Leigh Williams 1983 (age 40–41) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Education | Stanford University (BS) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MS, PhD) |
| Space career | |
| NASA astronaut | |
| Selection | NASA Group 23 (2021) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics |
| Thesis | Initial Exploration of 21-cm Cosmology with Imaging and Power Spectra from the Murchison Widefield Array (2012) |
| Doctoral advisor | Jacqueline Hewitt |
Background edit
Williams grew up in Potomac, Maryland. He graduated Montgomery Blair High School, Silver Spring, Maryland in 2001. He graduated from Stanford University in 2005 with a bachelor's degree in physics and a doctorate in physics from MIT in 2012, where his research was in astrophysics. Williams is a board-certified medical physicist, completing his residency training at Harvard Medical School before joining the faculty as a clinical physicist and researcher.[1][2]
Career edit
Before his Ph.D., Williams worked at the United States Naval Research Laboratory and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, as well as volunteered as an EMT and firefighter for the Rockville Volunteer Fire Department serving Montgomery County, Maryland.[3] He most recently worked as a medical physicist in the Radiation Oncology Department at the Brigham and Women's Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. He was the lead physicist for the Institute's MRI-guided adaptive radiation therapy program. His research focused on developing image guidance techniques for cancer treatments.[4][2]
Astronaut candidacy edit
On December 6, 2021, Williams was selected to join NASA's 23rd astronaut candidate class.[5]
References edit
- ^ Mars, Kelli (December 6, 2021). "NASA Astronaut Candidate Christopher L. Williams". NASA. Archived from the original on December 6, 2021. Retrieved December 7, 2021.
- ^ a b Attridge, Margaret (December 7, 2021). "One Small Step for Montgomery County, One Giant Leap for Christopher Williams". Montgomery Community Media.
- ^ "One Small Step for Montgomery County, One Giant Leap for Christopher Williams". December 7, 2021. Retrieved August 30, 2023.
- ^ Kelli, Mars. "Nasa selects 10 astronaut candidates to send to moon". NASA. Retrieved December 3, 2021.
- ^ Roulette, Joey (December 6, 2021). "NASA Introduces Class of 10 New Astronaut Candidates". New York Times. Archived from the original on December 7, 2021. Retrieved December 7, 2021.