Materials Science and Engineering Associate Professor Robert E.A. Williams is the new director of The Ohio State University’s Center for Electron Microscopy and Analysis (CEMAS).
Since opening in 2013, CEMAS has helped remove the traditional boundaries between disciplines in materials characterization, enabling researchers from Ohio State and close to 150 external partners to see samples at near-atomic resolution and drive innovation. CEMAS houses one of the largest concentrations of analytical electron microscopy equipment in the world and is staffed by world-class scientists skilled at informing difficult engineering problems through analytical electron microscopy.
An Ohio State alumnus, Williams had been serving as interim director since September 2024. He returned to Ohio State for the opening of CEMAS in 2013 as the senior research officer and was promoted to assistant director of research and development in 2016. In these previous roles, Robert created and cultivated strategic partnerships with academic, government, and industry partners and oversaw development of internal and external educational resources.
His research has focused on aerospace alloys, specifically titanium, nickel and aluminum alloys. Co-author of more than 150 peer-reviewed papers, Williams is an expert in scanning electron microscopy (SEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and dual beam focused ion beam (DB-FIB) microscopy. With extensive experience in three-dimensional serial sectioning and advanced characterization techniques such as x-ray electron dispersive spectroscopy (XEDS) and electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS), as well as electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) imaging.
“CEMAS will strive to maintain and grow as an internationally recognized, state-of-the-art facility,” said Williams. “Through coupling quantitative outputs with mechanical properties and material behavior, analytical electron microscopy has the potential to create ‘big-data’ and inform predictive machine learning models, better known as artificial intelligence, for all materials.”
Prior to returning to Ohio State, Williams was a research assistant professor at the University of North Texas. He received his B.S. degree in Materials Science and Engineering from Virginia Tech in 2001, and his M.S. and Ph.D. from Ohio State in 2005 and 2010, respectively.
“Robert brings years of experience in advanced electron microscopy techniques, a track record of fostering collaborative research environments, and leadership within CEMAS,” said College of Engineering Associate Dean for Research Seth Weinberg.