BP’s Chief Scientist visits UCF

BP’s Chief Scientist, Ellen D. Williams, will be speaking to UCF students, staff, faculty and guests on January 18, 2013 as part of the Distinguished Speakers Series, which is hosted by the College of Sciences.

The event will start at 11 a.m., is free and open to the public and is in the Pegasus Ballroom, which is located in the Student Union.

Williams plays a role in determining how developments in science and technology can contribute to sustainable, secure and environmentally responsible energy.

In this talk, Williams will outline the importance of scientific research to both finding new solutions and providing trusted data to underpin informed decisions about energy, water, land and minerals. Three examples of research addressing these topics will be presented from a perspective of the scientific challenges in delivering new value in the energy system. These will span the disciplinary space of geoscience, chemistry, biology and natural resource systems.

Prior to becoming the chief scientist, Williams was the distinguished university professor at the University of Maryland, College Park. She has made important contributions in condensed matter/surface physics in her extremely productive career.

Since 1996, Williams has directed the UMD Materials Research Science and Engineering Center in cutting-edge research, developing collaborations and innovative outreach. Among her special interests are surfaces at the atomic scale, thin films, low-dimensional interfaces and graphene. In 2005, she was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences; two years earlier, she was selected as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Williams has been honored with the David Turnbull Lectureship for career contributions from the Materials Research Society, and has received from the American Physical Society both the David Adler Lectureship Award for work in materials and the Maria Goeppert-Mayer Award for outstanding achievement as a young researcher. Throughout her decades as an acclaimed scientist, she has been committed to encouraging the involvement and success of women and minorities in physics and related fields.