Michael Williams honored with emeritus status
Michael Williams, associate professor of mathematics in the College Science at Virginia Tech, has been conferred the “associate professor emeritus” title by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors.
The title of emeritus may be conferred on retired professors and associate professors, administrative officers, librarians, and exceptional staff members who are specially recommended to the board of visitors by Virginia Tech President Charles W. Steger. Nominated individuals who are approved by the board of visitors receive an emeritus certificate from the university.
A member of the Virginia Tech community since 1976, Williams’ research in the area of applied mathematics was supported by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Education and resulted in 26 published papers. His research focused on the area of technology-assisted university instruction and was architect of the Math Emporium -- an instructional program that is unique both in scale and in its technology-assisted implementation of a time-tested understanding of how students learn mathematics.
Williams led the Math Emporium team that received the university’s XCaliber Team
Award.
He served his profession as a reviewer for the National Science Foundation and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and as a member of the boards of the Apple University Consortium, the IBM Higher Education Consortium, and the Commonwealth of Virginia Task Force on Supercomputing.
In addition, Williams served the Virginia Tech community in many capacities, including as director of the Math Emporium, as director of the computing center, as associate vice president for information systems, and as associate vice president for information systems and research computing.
Williams received his bachelor’s degree from Brown University and a master’s degree and Ph.D. from New York University.
