Austin Beatty Williams (October 17, 1919 – October 27, 1999) was an American carcinologist, "the acknowledged expert on and leader in studies of the systematics of eastern American decapod crustaceans".
Biography.
Austin B. Williams was born on October 17, 1919, in Plattsburg, Missouri, the eldest of three children to Oliver Perry Williams and Lucy Sell. He was educated at McPherson College and the University of Kansas, gaining his Ph.D. in 1951. He then worked at the University of North Carolina Institute of Fisheries Research, the University of Illinois, before gaining a position in the systematics laboratory of the National Marine Fisheries Service, based at the Smithsonian Institution. He was married and had one son and two grandchildren. He died of cancer at Falls Church, Virginia, on October 27, 1999.
Work.
Williams' first scientific paper, published in 1952, described six new species of freshwater crayfish from the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma; he continued to publish until his death in 1999, accruing 118 publications in that time. His most important works include monographs on the marine decapod crustaceans of the Carolinas, on the decapods of the Atlantic coast of the United States, and on the lobsters of the world's oceans. He won several awards, including the Crustacean Society's "Excellence in Research Award" and the American Fisheries Society's "Oscar Elton Sette Award".
Taxa.
Austin B. Williams described or co-described 101 new taxa of decapod crustaceans, from the rank of subspecies to superfamily (obelisks mark fossil taxa):
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One genus and several species were named by other scientists in honor of Williams. They include:
References.
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