ScienceMakers Toolkit Manual - The History Makers

ScienceMakers
Spotlight: Luther S. Williams
Full Name: Luther Steward Williams
Born: August 19, 1940
Place: Sawyerville, AL
Parents: Mattie B. Williams
Roosevelt Williams
Spouse: Constance Marie Marion
Education: Hale County Training School - Greensboro, AL (1957)
Miles College – Fairfi eld, AL (B.A. Biology, 1961)
Atlanta University – Atlanta, GA (M.S. Biology, 1963)
Purdue University – West Lafayette, IN
(Ph.D. Microbial Physiology, 1968)
Type of Science: Biology
Achievements: Named one of the 50 Most Important Blacks in Science Research by
Spectrum Magazine
Served as a science advisor to the White House
Biography
Scientist, educator, and administrator Dr. Luther Steward Williams earned his
B.A. degree in biology with distinction from Miles College in 1961. Williams went on to Atlanta
University (now Clark-Atlanta University), where he completed his M.S. degree in 1963. Williams
then worked toward his Ph.D. degree in microbial physiology, which he received in 1968 from Purdue
University. Williams was the recipient of an NIH predoctoral fellowship at Purdue University
1966-1968, and subsequently spent one year as an American Cancer Society postdoctoral fellow in
the Department of Biochemistry at the State University of New York, Stony Brook in 1968.
Williams set himself apart as the recipient of numerous other prestigious fellowships during and
after his doctoral work, with two NIH Career Development Awards at Purdue University and MIT,
and NIH research grant support between 1969 and 1987; he also held an American Cancer Society
Research Grant between 1969 and 1973.
Williams served as a national advisor on many federal health and science initiatives, including the
original NIH Recombinant DNA National Advisory Committee from 1979-1981; the National
Biotechnology Policy Board; and the U.S. Government Task Force on Women, Minorities, and the
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