David N. Williams, Ph.D., professor of physics in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, retired from active faculty status on May 31, 1999.

Professor Williams received his B. A. degree in physics and philosophy in 1956 from Maryville College and his Ph.D. degree in 1964 from the University of California at Berkeley. He moved on to postdoctoral studies at the Eidgenossiche Technische Hochschule in Zurich, the Centre d’Etudes Nucleaires, in Saclay, France, and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He joined the University of Michigan as an assistant professor in 1980. He served on various departmental committees and was a graduate advisor from 1985-95.

His research interest have generally been in quantum field theory, with a mathematical physics orientation. In the earliest part of his career, he did important work on invariant scattering amplitudes free of kinematic singularities. He was a major author of the proof of Stapp’s Theorem on Lorentz covariant holomorphic functions. Later, her published work on the mathematical theory of unstable particles and Euclidean quantum field theory. In recent years, he has been interested in the triviality problem for quantum field theory. He has also focused recently on the development of software for algebraic manipulation, related to M. Veltman’s Schoonschip program. He plans to remain active in these areas for the next few years.

The Regents now salute this faculty member by naming David N. Williams professor emeritus of physics.