as the institute grew in the late 1930s, williams took on the responsibility for training and managing the institute's research technicians. the training she provided was extremely thorough, and covered elements as diverse as animal care, the preparation of media and broths for bacterial culture, and glassblowing. she also trained junior scientists in practical bacteriology techniques. among her trainees was frank macfarlane burnet, who later described her as "the centre of commonsense and helpfulness around which all the activities of the institute rotated".