David A. Williams

David A. Williams is an Adjunct Professor of Physics at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He is a member of the VERITAS and CTA collaborations, focusing on high-energy gamma-ray astronomy. Additionally, he is an Affiliated Scientist with the Fermi-Large Area Telescope project.

• Ph.D. from Harvard University (1987)
• Office: Room 319, Natural Science 2
• Email: daw@ucsc.edu

Research Interests

Williams investigates high-energy astrophysical phenomena using ground-based gamma-ray telescopes. Key research areas include:

• Understanding gamma-ray bursts and their emission mechanisms
• Analyzing active galactic nuclei (particularly blazars) and their relativistic jets
• Studying cosmic rays and their acceleration processes in astrophysical systems
• Developing advanced instrumentation for experiments like VERITAS and CTA
• Investigating absorption of gamma rays via cosmic microwave background interactions

His recent publications highlight collaborative work on TeV gamma-ray detection, source analysis, and telescope design advancements.

Collaborations

• VERITAS: Observational gamma-ray astronomy with 12m telescopes
• CTA: Chair of the CTA-US group for next-generation telescope development
• Fermi-LAT: Multi-wavelength studies combining satellite and ground-based data