LaNell Williams
{{Short description|American physicist and virologist}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = LaNell Williams
| image =
| birth_date = January 1, 1993
| birth_place = Memphis, Tennessee
| other_names = LaNell Alexandria Williams
LaNell Threatt-Williams
| alma_mater = Fisk University;
Wesleyan University
| doctoral_advisor = Vinothan N. Manoharan
| known_for = Founder of Women+ of Color Project; LaNell Williams Day
| awards = National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow Program (2016)
}}
LaNell Williams (born January 1, 1993) is an American physicist and virologist. She is the third African American woman to receive a PhD in physics from Harvard University. She founded the Women+ of Color Project, which helps women of color gain the resources to apply to graduate programs as well as giving advice about life as a graduate student. Her research focuses on the self assembly of the virus, bacteriophage MS2.
Early life and education
Williams was born in Memphis, Tennessee.{{Cite web|last=Roberson|first=Stephen|date=December 8, 2020|title=LaNell Williams and Duane Valz|url=https://nsbp.org/blogpost/1899228/362631/LaNell-Williams-and-Duane-Valz|access-date=August 17, 2021|website=National Society of Black Physicists}} She attended high school at City University School of Liberal Arts, graduating in 2011.{{Cite web|title=LaNell Williams|url=https://tedxbeaconstreet.com/speakers/lanell-williams/|access-date=2021-08-17|website=TEDxBeaconStreet}} She completed a bachelor's degree in physics at Wesleyan University in 2015. Williams was awarded a NSF-GRFP in 2016 to fund her graduate research at an accredited U.S. institution.{{Cite web|title=Williams '15 Awarded NSF Graduate Research Fellowship|url=https://newsletter.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2016/10/10/williamsfisk/|access-date=2021-09-06|website=News @ Wesleyan|language=en-US}} She joined the Fisk-Vanderbilt Master's to PhD Bridge Program where she was a dual student at Fisk University and Vanderbilt University. She earned a Master's degree at Fisk University in 2017.{{Cite web|title=LaNell Williams {{!}} ColorLines|url=https://www.colorlines.com/tags/lanell-williams|access-date=2021-08-23|website=www.ColorLines.com}}{{Cite web|title=Astronomy in Color|url=http://astronomyincolor.blogspot.com/2016/03/|access-date=2021-08-17|website=astronomyincolor.blogspot.com|language=en}} Williams continued on to become the third African American woman to graduate with a Physics PhD in 2023 from Harvard University where she studied under Professor Vinothan N. Manoharan.{{Cite web|last=Williams|first=Colleen|date=2019-12-04|title=Harvard Ph.D. Candidate LaNell Williams Champions Black Women in Physics|url=https://afrotech.com/harvard-ph-d-candidate-lanell-williams-champions-black-women-in-physics|access-date=2021-08-17|website=AfroTech|language=en}}{{Cite web|title=LaNell Williams|url=https://uchv.princeton.edu/people/lanell-williams|access-date=2025-03-20|website=uchv.princeton.edu}}
Career
She currently works on understanding the life cycle of viruses from the physics perspective in the Manoharan Lab at Harvard University.{{Cite news|title=Virus physics|language=en|url=https://manoharan.seas.harvard.edu/virus-physics|access-date=2021-09-09}} Her research is on the self assembly of the bacteriophage MS2 virus where she focuses on why these systems are able to survive without external interactions by looking at multiple ways a virus can assemble itself; her research falls under soft condensed matter physics.{{Cite news|last=Wu|first=Katherine J.|date=2021-01-26|title=If You Squeeze the Coronavirus, Does It Shatter?|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/26/science/coronavirus-physics-vaccine.html|access-date=2021-08-17|issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite web|title=#BlackInPhysics Week at Yale Seminar: LaNell Williams, Harvard University, "Bulk light-scattering measurements of viral capsid self-assembly around RNA" {{!}} Department of Physics|url=https://physics.yale.edu/event/blackinphysics-week-yale-seminar-lanell-williams-harvard-university-bulk-light-scattering|access-date=2021-08-17|website=physics.yale.edu}}
= Science advocacy =
Williams founded the Women+ of Color Project (W+OCP) in 2019 to raise the diversity in the graduate application process for under-represented racial minority women and nonbinary individuals.{{Cite web|title=APS-IDEA Virtual Meeting Speakers|url=http://www.aps.org/programs/innovation/fund/idea-speakers.cfm|access-date=2021-08-17|website=www.aps.org|language=en}} This project was created to help women of color learn and share experiences about applying and surviving in graduate school.{{Cite web|last=Elsevier|title=A Harvard PhD candidate is helping women of color succeed in academia|url=https://www.elsevier.com/connect/a-harvard-phd-candidate-is-helping-women-of-color-succeed-in-academia|access-date=2021-08-17|website=Elsevier Connect|language=en}} In the first year, the program had 20 participants and in 2020 there were 50 active participants who met virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic.{{Cite web|title=Women+ of Color Project Hosts Three-Day Virtual STEM Application Workshop {{!}} News {{!}} The Harvard Crimson|url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2020/10/13/women-of-color-project-workshop/|access-date=2021-09-05|website=www.thecrimson.com}}{{Cite web|title=New Face of Physics: Women+ of Color Project launches at Harvard|url=https://quantbio.harvard.edu/news/new-face-physics-women-color-project-launches-harvard|access-date=2021-09-05|website=quantbio.harvard.edu|language=en}} This program allowed African American, Latinx, and Native American individuals to learn about the graduate school application and admission process to improve the applicant pool for under-represented racial minority women and nonbinary groups.{{Cite web|title=The Women+ of Color Project @ Harvard|url=https://dib.harvard.edu/women-color-project-harvard|access-date=2021-09-05|website=dib.harvard.edu|language=en}} She continued her activism work by being a co-organizer in #BlackinPhysics week in 2020, which highlighted and celebrated Black physicists.{{Cite journal|last1=Aut|first1=D. Brown II Charles|last2=Aut|first2=Esquivel Jessica|last3=Aut|first3=Gonzales Eileen|last4=Aut|first4=Quichocho Xandria|last5=Aut|first5=Polius Cheyenne|date=2020-10-26|title=Meet the organizers of #BlackInPhysics Week|journal=Physics Today |volume=2020 |issue=4 |pages=1026b |url=https://pubs.aip.org/physicstoday/online/5360/Meet-the-organizers-of-BlackInPhysics-Week|language=EN|doi=10.1063/PT.6.4.20201026b |bibcode=2020PhT..2020R1026. |s2cid=243455670 |access-date=9 January 2025}} Starting January 2021, Williams serves on the American Physical Society's Board of Directors.
Honors
In 2011, to recognize her academic excellence and achievements within the community, she was presented with a Resolution that dubbed August 16 'LaNell Williams Day' in Memphis.{{Cite web|title=Commission Meeting - 8/22/2011 - Aug 22nd, 2011|url=http://shelby.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=4&clip_id=614|access-date=2021-08-17|website=shelby.granicus.com|language=en}} This day acknowledged her work within the Memphis community as a volunteer for multiple organizations from Children's Museum of Memphis to Books to Birth; it also recognized her academic awards and honors which included the Academic All-Star Award from Cellular South to receiving the Sam Walton Scholarship, and being a member of the National Honors Society.{{Cite news|date=January 25, 2012|title=HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 578|url=https://publications.tnsosfiles.com/acts/107/resolutions/hjr0578.pdf|access-date=September 9, 2021}}
References
External links
- [https://manoharan.seas.harvard.edu/people/vinothan-n-manoharan Vinothan N. Manoharan]
- [https://thewocproject.org/ Women+ of Color Project]
- [https://publications.tnsosfiles.com/acts/107/resolutions/hjr0578.pdf LaNell Williams Day]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, LaNell}}
Category:American biophysicists
Category:Fisk University alumni
Category:Wesleyan University alumni
Category:Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni
Category:Physicists from Tennessee
Category:Scientists from Memphis, Tennessee