Christopher Williams (astronaut)
Christopher Leigh Williams is an American medical physicist and NASA astronaut candidate. He resides in Boston, Massachusetts.
Christopher L. Williams | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1983 (age 39–40) New York City, U.S. |
| Status | Active |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupations |
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| Space career | |
| NASA astronaut | |
| Selection | NASA Group 23 |
| 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
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
Before his Ph.D., Williams worked at the United States Naval Research Laboratory and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. 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.[3][2]
Astronaut candidacy
On December 6, 2021, Williams was selected to join NASA's 23rd astronaut candidate class.[4]
References
- Mars, Kelli (December 6, 2021). "NASA Astronaut Candidate Christopher L. Williams". NASA. Archived from the original on December 6, 2021. Retrieved December 7, 2021.
- Attridge, Margaret (December 7, 2021). "One Small Step for Montgomery County, One Giant Leap for Christopher Williams". Montgomery Community Media.
- 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.