Professor Williams, who will take up the position of Director of the ANU Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering at the end of 2002, has an international reputation for his work on the physics of those materials that form the basis of the semiconductor industry, and particularly on the use of ion-beam methods to characterise and modify the properties of those materials. He has established world-class facilities for this work and has built a large and diverse team of researchers at the Australian National University. He also collaborates extensively with colleagues in laboratories overseas. He is active in pursuing the industrial applications of discoveries in this field.