LUTHER S. WILLIAMS Provost and Vice President for Academic ...

Research Resources, NIH); and the U. S. Government Task Force on Women, Minorities and the Handicapped in
Science and Technology, the White House, 1987-90. During tenures as Dean of the Graduate School at
Washington University and the University of Colorado, he served as member of the Council of Graduate Schools’
Board and its Committee on the Graduate Record Examination(1981-85) and chaired the attendant Committee
on Minority Graduate Education/ the Educational Testing Service,1983-85. He also served for as a member of
the Health, Safety and Environment Committee for the U. S. Department of Energy National Laboratories/
University of California,1981-87 ; the Advisory Board, Offi ce of Technology Assessment, U. S. Congress,
1985-87; chaired, the Advisory Committee, Ford Foundation Doctoral Fellowship Program for Minorities,
1985-86; was a member of the National Research Council’s Committee on Scientifi c and Technical Manpower,
National Academy of Science 1981-83, the Advisory Screening Committee in Life Sciences, Fulbright-Hays
Fellowships, Council for the International Exchange of Scholars, 1978-81, and the Board of Trustees, Miles
College, 1984-87.He also served as a member of the National Advisory Committee, White House Initiative on
Historically Black Colleges and Universities on Science and Technology, 1986-89 and the Nomination Committee,
DANA Foundation Awards in Health and Education, 1991-95.
As a federal employee, he chaired the White House Biotechnology Science Coordinating Committee, Council on
Competitiveness; served as Vice Chair of the Federal Coordinating Council for Science, Engineering, and
Technology’s Committee on Education and Human Resources of the White House Offi ce of Science and
Technology Policy ;and served as Vice Chair of the Offi ce of Science and Technology Policy’s National Science
and Technology Council Committee on Education and Training and chair of its Subcommittee on Excellence in
Science, Mathematics and Engineering Education.
Dr. Williams earned the B.A. degree in biology with distinction from Miles College in 1961, the M.S. degree in
1963 from Atlanta University (now Clark-Atlanta University), and the Ph.D. degree in microbial physiology in
1968 from Purdue University. He was a NIH predoctoral fellow at Purdue University(1966-68) and an American
Cancer Society postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Biochemistry at the State University of New York, Stony
Brook, from 1968-1969.
The author of over 70 publications in professional scientifi c journals and more than 20 articles and reports
addressing science, mathematics, engineering and technology education, Dr. Williams, is a member of the
American Society for Microbiology, the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and the
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He is a fellow of the American Academy of
Microbiology, a AAAS Fellow, a fellow of the Academy of Science of St. Louis, and is the recipient of honorary
doctorate of science degrees from Purdue University,1987, University of Louisville, 1992, Capitol College,1996,
Bowie State.
University,1996, Tuskegee University,1997, and the University of the District of Columbia,2000. He received the
Presidential Meritorious Executive Rank Award in the Senior Executive Service in 1992 and the Presidential Distinguished
Executive Rank Award in the Senior Executive Service in 1993. In 1998, Dr. Williams received the fi rst
William H. Hinton Research Training Award from the American Society for Microbiology and was awarded the
Lacey Science Education Award, the New York Academy of Sciences in 2000. In 1997, he was named
distinguished alumnus of the School of Science, Purdue University; in 1999 was the recipient of the Augustus F.
Hawkins Education Service Award by the National Commission for African American Education ; was inducted into
the Black College Foundation Hall of Fame in 2004; was elected a member of the Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity
(ETA chapter) in 2004; received the Trustees Award, the Academy of Science of St. Louis in 2004; elected to the
Board of the George Washington Carver Birthplace Association in 2004; and elected to the St. Louis Community
College Foundation Board in 2005. He is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in Science and Technology,
Who’s Who in the Midwest, Men of Achievement, and Outstanding Young Men of America and elected to
Outstanding Educators of America and Outstanding Black Americans.