Christopher Williams (astronaut) explained

Christopher Williams
Birth Name:Christopher Leigh Williams
Birth Place:New York City, New York, U.S.
Education:Stanford University (BS)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MS, PhD)
Type:NASA astronaut
Selection:NASA Group 23 (2021)
Module:
Embed:yes
Field:Physics
Thesis Title:Initial Exploration of 21-cm Cosmology with Imaging and Power Spectra from the Murchison Widefield Array
Thesis Url:http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582
Thesis Year:2012
Doctoral Advisor:Jacqueline Hewitt

Christopher Leigh Williams is an American medical physicist and NASA astronaut. He resides in Boston, Massachusetts.

Background

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]

Career

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.[2] He most recently worked as a medical physicist in the Radiation OncologyDepartment at the Brigham and Women's Hospital and Dana-Farber CancerInstitute in Boston. He was the lead physicist for the Institute'sMRI-guided adaptive radiation therapy program. His research focused ondeveloping image guidance techniques for cancer treatments.[3] [1]

Astronaut candidacy

On December 6, 2021, Williams was selected to join NASA Astronaut Group 23 candidate class.

Notes and References

  1. News: Attridge . Margaret . One Small Step for Montgomery County, One Giant Leap for Christopher Williams . Montgomery Community Media . December 7, 2021 . en.
  2. News: One Small Step for Montgomery County, One Giant Leap for Christopher Williams . 30 August 2023 . December 7, 2021 .
  3. Web site: Nasa selects 10 astronaut candidates to send to moon. Kelli. Mars. NASA. December 3, 2021.