Richard Williams earned his B.S. in physics at Wake Forest in 1968, where he was the first recipient of the Speas Award for distinguished work in physics. He completed an M.A. in 1971 and a Ph.D. in physics in 1974 at Princeton University. After beginning his career at the Naval Research Laboratory, he returned to Wake Forest as Reynolds Professor of Physics. His research focused on scintillators and ultrafast laser spectroscopy.

He helped establish the department’s Ph.D. program in the 1980s, mentored its first physics Ph.D. graduate, and became the department’s first endowed professor. Over his career, he supervised 19 Ph.D. theses, coauthored a text on self-trapped excitons, and published more than 250 scientific articles. He remained active in research at the Wake Forest Nanotech Center after retiring in 2017. Students and colleagues remember his generous mentoring, love of teaching, and high standards of scholarship. The Richard T. Williams Faculty Chair in Physics carries his name.