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Curriculum Vitae
Mark C. Williams
http://nuweb.neu.edu/mark
Associate
Professor
Northeastern University
Department
of Physics and Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Complex Systems
111 Dana Research Center
Boston, MA 02115
Education
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
Ph.D. in Physics August 1998, GPA 3.89 Thesis advisors: J. W. Halley and C. F. Giese Thesis: "Creation and Detection of Low Temperature Helium Atom Beams and Suspension of Superfluid Helium for the Study of Bose-Einstein Condensation in Superfluid Helium"
Macalester College, Saint Paul, MN
BA in Physics and
German May 1992, GPA 3.88
Graduated Magna Cum Laude, Honors in Physics. Thesis advisor: R. T. Brundage
Honors thesis title: "Radiative and non-radiative decay rates of americium and curium in fluorozirconate glass"
Scientific Employment
2007-present: Associate Professor of Physics, Northeastern University2001-2007: Assistant Professor of Physics, Northeastern University
1999-2001: Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Minnesota
Research Advisor: Prof. Victor Bloomfield, Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics
1998-1999: Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Minnesota
Research Advisors: Prof. Victor Bloomfield, Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics and Prof. Matthew Tirrell, Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Honors and Fellowships
National Science Foundation CAREER Award, 2003
Research Corporation Research Innovation Award,
2003
University of Minnesota Doctoral Dissertation Fellow,
1996-1997
NASA Graduate Student Researchers Program Fellow, 1993-1996
Phi Beta Kappa, 1992
Pi Mu Epsilon, 1992 (Mathematics Honor Society)
Delta Phi Alpha, 1992 (German Honor Society)
National Honor Society, 1988
Service
Invited Session Chair, “Biomolecular Machines 2”, Albany 2007: The 15th Conversation, Albany, NY,
June 19-23, 2007
Panelist, Proposal Review Panel for the National
Science Foundation Division of Mathematics and Physical Sciences and Division
of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, 2006-present
Panelist, Proposal Review Panel for the National
Science Foundation Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, Molecular
Biophysics, 2003-2006
Session Chair, SoftBio 2006, a Conference on Statistical Physics, Soft Matter, and Biological
Physics, Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics, Copenhagen, Denmark, May
8-11, 2006
Panelist, Science and Engineering Proposal Review
Panel for the Northeastern University Office of the Provost Research and
Scholarship Development Fund, 2006
Focus Session Organizer and Chair, 2006 March Meeting
of the American Physical Society, “Dynamics of nucleic acid-protein
interactions: from single molecules to biological systems”
Panelist, “Lab Management 101”, part of the “Getting
There and Getting Started” seminar series for PhD’s and postdocs,
MIT, Cambridge, MA, April 28, 2006
Panel Judge, Massachusetts Junior Academy of Science
Symposium, MIT, Cambridge, MA, October 23, 2005
Member, American Physical Society Division of
Biological Physics Committee to Select APS Fellows, 2005-2006
Panel Judge and Session Chair, Massachusetts Junior
Academy of Science Symposium, MIT, Cambridge, MA, October 9, 2004
Session Chair, “X-ray, Neutron, SPR, CD, and Emerging
Techniques”, Second International Conference on Biomedical Spectroscopy,
London, 2003
Session Chair, “Single Molecule Biophysics II”,
Biophysical Society Annual Meeting 2002
Anonymous referee for manuscripts submitted to Applied
Physics Letters, Biochemistry, Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Biophysical
Journal, Biopolymers, Chemistry and Biology, EMBO Journal, EMBO Reports,
European Physical Journal E, Europhysics Letters,
FEBS Letters, Journal of the American Chemical Society, Journal of
Bacteriology, Journal of Biomechanics, Journal of Chemical Physics, Journal of
Molecular Biology, Journal of Optics A: Pure and Applied Optics, Journal of
Physics and Chemistry of Solids, Nature, Nature Methods, Nature Reviews
Molecular Cell Biology, Nucleic Acids Research, Philosophical Transactions of
the Royal Society A, Physical Review Letters, Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences USA, and Science.
Grant Proposal Reviews: American Chemical Society
Petroleum Research Fund, Israel Science Foundation, National Science Foundation (external and panel reviewer), and the Netherlands
Organization for Scientific Research (NWO)
University of Minnesota Physical
Sciences Policy and Review Council, 1996-1998 (Physics department student
representative to Graduate School governing body.)
Research Grants
National Science Foundation Research Grant (Williams, MC, PI)
“Quantifying Single Molecule DNA-ligand Interactions”
MCB- 0744456,
3/1/2008-2/28/2013, $710,000
National Institutes of Health R01 Grant (Maher, LJ III, PI)
“Enhancement of cellular DNA flexibility”
Subcontract to GM075965 (subcontract PI, Williams, MC)
9/25/2006 - 8/31/2010, $337,118 to Northeastern
National Institutes of Health R01 Grant (Williams, MC, PI)
“Single Molecule HIV-1 NC/Gag-DNA Interactions”
GM072462, 08/01/2004 - 07/31/2009, $1,250,000
National Science Foundation CAREER Award (Williams, MC, PI)
“DNA Binding Ligands and the Helix-Coil Transition of
Single DNA Molecules”
MCB-0238190, 1/15/2003-12/31/2007, $568,000
American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund
Grant (Williams, MC, PI)
“DNA binding drugs and the helix-coil transition of
single DNA molecules”
PRF # 39448-G4, 5/1/2003-8/31/2005, $35,000
Research Corporation Research Innovation Award (Williams, MC, PI)
“Single molecule force spectroscopy studies of
RNA-protein interactions”
RI0950, 5/15/2003, $35,000
Professional Memberships
American
Physical Society
Biophysical Society
Optical Society of America
Research Experience
Associate Professor
of Physics, Northeastern University, 2007- present
Assistant Professor of Physics, Northeastern University, 2001- 2007
My main research interest is the biophysics of DNA-protein interactions. DNA is normally found as a double helix consisting of a sequence of base pairs, representing the genetic code. In order for this code to be read to create proteins (transcription and translation) or to make copies of the DNA (replication), the two strands of the double helix must be separated to expose the bases. The processes of replication and transcription are regulated by proteins that bind to DNA and alter the stability of the double helix. In my research we use optical tweezers instruments to apply very small forces to single DNA molecules. Measurement of these forces allows us to determine the stability of the DNA double helix and the extent to which various DNA binding proteins alter the structure and stability of DNA. This approach provides unique insights into the function of these proteins in the cell.
Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Minnesota, 1998-2001
For this project I built an optical tweezers apparatus to perform high resolution force measurements. The apparatus consisted of two counterpropagating diode lasers that are focused to a small spot inside a flow cell. The small spot formed an optical trap, attracting dielectric particles to its center due to the high electric field gradient near the focus of the beams. Photodiode detectors were used to measure forces up to 120 pN with a resolution of 0.1 pN. The instrument allowed us to investigate new areas of biophysical chemistry, in which the helix-coil phase transition of a single molecule was studied as a function of temperature, solution ionic strength, pH, and in the presence of DNA binding proteins.
Graduate Student, University of Minnesota, 1992-1998
As a graduate student I received a NASA GSRP fellowship to work in a group with Prof. Clayton F. Giese and Prof. J. Woods Halley. In this work I played the lead role in design, construction, and execution of two distinct and innovative experiments in low temperature physics. These activities resulted in significant new findings in the study of the wetting of cesium by 4He, in the development of superconducting bolometers at dilution refrigerator temperatures, and in the study of helium atom beams created by evaporation from superfluid films. The first major project was suspension of superfluid helium above a cesium-coated orifice. I built a cryostat to perform this experiment at 1.2 K, and our experiments were successful. For the next stage of our experiment, I installed a dilution refrigerator insert and built a gas handling system for the refrigerator. We then made and tested thin films of titanium for use as superconducting bolometers. We used these bolometers to detect low energy helium atom beams at temperatures less than 300 mK.
Undergraduate Research Assistant, Macalester College, 1990-1992
At Macalester I measured the spectroscopic properties of actinide ions doped in glass in the laboratory of Professor R. T. Brundage. We used time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy to study optical transitions of americium and curium ions in glass hosts. I made samples at Argonne National Laboratory by mixing actinide atoms in powdered form with crushed glass, then melting the glass and cooling the sample at various rates. I discovered some interesting temperature dependent effects in the radiative and non-radiative transition rates in americium, which resulted in my first professional publication.