Philip Karl (PK) Williams
Family, friends, and colleagues mourn the passing of PK Williams in the Washington, DC, area on 19 January 2021 from cancer.
He was born on 16 November 1939 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and obtained a bachelor’s degree in physics from Rice University in 1961. His PhD was obtained under Don Lichtenberg at Indiana University in 1965, after which PK took a position as research associate with Marc Ross at the University of Michigan. In 1967 he moved to Florida State University (FSU) in Tallahassee as an assistant professor and was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 1973. In 1979 he decided to move to the Department of Energy, Division of High Energy Physics (HEP), located in Germantown, Maryland, near Washington. He soon became the head of the university program until he retired in late 2008. He is survived by his wife of 52 years, Sammye, three sons, and many grandchildren.
At FSU, PK was best known for his work in pion physics (π–π scattering) with absorption that came to be known as the Williams model. His main responsibility at the DOE became serving as head of the yearly $100 million university research program in HEP that he led and administered for almost 30 years. His other duties involved serving as executive secretary of the High Energy Physics Advisory Panel, executive secretary of the US/Russia Joint Coordinating Committee on Fundamental Properties of Matter, executive secretary of the US/Japan Committee on High Energy Physics, and chair of the Scientific Assessment Group for Experiments in Non-Accelerator Physics. He was a faithful steward of the university HEP program at the DOE, both through good times and bad, and remained a helpful and supportive leader of the university research community, gaining high marks and great respect from that group. In 2003 he was also elected fellow of the American Physical Society. We will all miss his grace, civility, and immense integrity during his service as champion of university funding at DOE.
— Kathleen Turner, on behalf of PK’s family, friends, and colleagues
