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Austin B. Williams

Austin Beatty Williams (October 17, 1919 – October 27, 1999) was an American carcinologist, "the acknowledged expert on and leader in studies of the systematics of eastern American decapod crustaceans".{{cite journal |author=Rafael Lemaitre & Bruce B. Collette |year=2000 |title=Austin Beatty Williams (17 October 1919–27 October 1999). Biographical summary |journal=Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington |volume=113 |issue=1 |pages=1–12 |url=http://biostor.org/reference/81037 |hdl=10088/7340}}

Biography

Austin B. Williams was born on October 17, 1919, in Plattsburg, Missouri, the eldest of three children to Oliver Perry Williams and Lucy Sell. He was educated at McPherson College and the University of Kansas, gaining his Ph.D. in 1951. He then worked at the University of North Carolina Institute of Fisheries Research, the University of Illinois, before gaining a position in the systematics laboratory of the National Marine Fisheries Service, based at the Smithsonian Institution. He was married and had one son and two grandchildren. He died of cancer at Falls Church, Virginia, on October 27, 1999.

Work

Williams' first scientific paper, published in 1952, described six new species of freshwater crayfish from the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma;{{cite journal |author=Austin B. Williams |year=1952 |title=Six new crayfishes of the genus Orconectes (Decapoda: Astacidae) from Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma |journal=Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science |volume=55 |issue=3 |pages=330–351 |doi=10.2307/3626240 |jstor=3626240}} he continued to publish until his death in 1999, accruing 118 publications in that time. His most important works include monographs on the marine decapod crustaceans of the Carolinas,{{cite journal |author=Austin B. Williams |year=1965 |title=Marine decapod crustaceans of the Carolinas |journal=Fishery Bulletin |volume=65 |issue=1 |pages=1–298 |url=http://decapoda.nhm.org/references/referenceinfo.html?refid=24228}} on the decapods of the Atlantic coast of the United States,{{cite book |author=Austin B. Williams |year=1984 |title=Shrimps, lobsters, and crabs, of the Atlantic coast of the eastern United States, Maine to Florida |publisher=Smithsonian Institution Press |location=Washington, D.C. |pages=1–550 |url=http://decapoda.nhm.org/references/referenceinfo.html?refid=11393}} and on the lobsters of the world's oceans.{{cite journal |author=Austin B. Williams |year=1987 |title=Lobsters—identification, world distribution, and U.S. trade |journal=Marine Fisheries Review |volume=48 |issue=2 |pages=1–36}}{{cite book |author=Austin B. Williams & Ian Dore |year=1988 |title=Lobsters of the World |publisher=Osprey Books |location=Huntington, NY |isbn=978-0-943738-23-9}} He won several awards, including the Crustacean Society's Excellence in Research Award{{cite journal |author=Rafael Lemaitre |year=1998 |title=Austin Beatty Williams recipient of Award for Excellence in Research |journal=Journal of Crustacean Biology |volume=18 |issue=3 |pages=619–620 |hdl=10088/7320 |jstor=1549426 |doi=10.1163/193724098x00449|doi-access=free }} and the American Fisheries Society's Oscar Elton Sette Award.

=Taxa=

Austin B. Williams described or co-described 101 new taxa of decapod crustaceans, from the rank of subspecies to superfamily (obelisks mark fossil taxa):

{{div col|colwidth=24em}}

;Caridea

;Astacidea

;Axiidea

;Gebiidea

;Anomura

;Brachyura

{{div col end}}

One genus and several species were named by other scientists in honor of Williams. They include:{{cite web |url=http://www.tmbl.gu.se/libdb/taxon/personetymol/petymol.vw.html |title=Dr. Austin Beatty Williams |work=Biographical Etymology of Marine Organism Names |author=Hans G. Hansson |publisher=University of Gothenburg |accessdate=December 2, 2012 |archive-date=September 18, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130918122613/http://www.tmbl.gu.se/libdb/taxon/personetymol/petymol.vw.html |url-status=dead }}

References

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External links

{{Portal|Crustaceans}}

  • {{cite web |url=http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/nefsc/systematics/ |title=The National Systematics Laboratory of NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service|date=23 February 2023 }}

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Category:American carcinologists

Category:1919 births

Category:1999 deaths

Category:National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration personnel

Category:People from Plattsburg, Missouri

Category:McPherson College alumni

Category:University of Kansas alumni

Category:University of Illinois faculty

Category:University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill faculty

Category:Deaths from cancer in Virginia

Category:20th-century American zoologists