Contact information

Curriculum Vitae
Mark C. Williams
https://williamslab.sites.northeastern.edu

Professor
Northeastern University Department of Physics
360 Huntington Avenue, Room 111 Dana Research Center
Boston, MA 02115

Education

University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN

Ph.D. in Physics August 1998. 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.
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

2017-present: Chair of Physics, Northeastern University
2010-present: Professor of Physics, Northeastern University
2007-2010: Associate Professor of Physics, Northeastern University
2001-2007: 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

Editorial Board Member, Biophysical Journal, 2020-present
Fellow, American Physical Society, Elected 2012
Editorial Board Member, Nucleic Acids Research, 2011-present
Regular Member, NIH Macromolecular Structure and Function C (MSFC) study section, 2011-2017
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

Organizing Committee member, 13th International Retroviral Symposium: Assembly, Maturation and Uncoating” to be held in Prague, Czech Republic, Sept 16-19, 2025
Organizing Committee member, 12^th Retroviral Symposium: Assembly, Maturation and Uncoating, Snowbird, UT, Sept 6th-9th 2023.
Organizer and Chair, 11th International Retroviral Nucleocapsid Protein and Assembly Symposium, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, August 15-17, 2019.
Scientific Committee member, 10th International Retroviral Nucleocapsid Protein and Assembly Symposium, Montpellier, France, September 18-21, 2016.
Session Chair, Protein-Nucleic Acid Interactions II, Biophysical Society 59th Annual Meeting, Baltimore, MD, February 7-11, 2015.
Session Chair and Co-Organizer, Symposium in honor of Judith G. Levin on the occasion of her retirement, The Cloisters, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, November 19, 2014.
Session Chair, Protein-Nucleic Acid Interactions II, 58th Biophysical Society Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, Feb. 15-19, 2014.
Scientific Committee member, 9th International Retroviral Nucleocapsid Protein and Assembly Symposium, Hotel Omni Mont-Royal, Montreal, Canada, August 25-28, 2013.
Session Chair, Protein-Nucleic Acid Interactions II, 56th Biophysical Society Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA, Feb. 25-29, 2012.
Scientific Committee member, 8th International Retroviral NC Symposium, Caixa Forum and Catalonia Plaza Hotel, Barcelona, Spain, September 18-21, 2011
Scientific Committee member, 7th International Retroviral NC Symposium, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN Sept. 14-16, 2009
Ad hoc member, NIH MSFC Study Section, June 4-5, 2009
Panelist, Proposal Review Panel for the National Science Foundation Division of Mathematics and Physical Sciences and Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, 2006-2010
Invited Session Chair, “Biomolecular Machines 2”, Albany 2007: The 15^th Conversation, Albany, NY, June 19-23, 2007
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: Condensed Matter, Journal of Physics and Chemistry of Solids, Nature, Nature Chemistry, Nature Methods, Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology, Nucleic Acids Research, Optics Express, 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

National Institutes of Health  (Williams, MC, PI)
“Chromatin modifications that enhance DNA accessibility”
1R01GM151305, 08/01/2023 – 07/31/2027, $2,029,270

National Institutes of Health  (Williams, MC, PI)
“Novel roles of viral proteins and host restriction factors in early HIV-1 replication events”
1R56AI167700, 05/12/2022 – 04/30/2024, $600,024

National Science Foundation (Williams, MC, PI)
“Quantifying Single Molecule DNA-ligand Interactions”
MCB-1817712, 8/1/2018 – 7/31/2024, $900,000

National Science Foundation (Williams, MC, PI)
MRI: Acquisition of a Lumicks SuperC-TRAP correlative optical tweezers and fluorescence microscope (CTFM) system
DBI – 1828506, 10/1/2018-9/30/2021, $1,077,500

National Institutes of Health (Maher, LJ III, PI)
“Enhancement of cellular DNA flexibility”
Subcontract to GM075965 (subcontract PI, Williams, MC)
9/25/2006 – 2/29/2020, $1,320,000 to Northeastern

National Institutes of Health (Williams, MC, PI)
“Single Molecule HIV-1 Replication Interactions”
R01GM072462, 08/01/2004 – 03/31/2019, $3,900,000

National Science Foundation (Williams, MC, PI)
“Quantifying Single Molecule DNA-ligand Interactions”
MCB-1243883, 3/1/2013-2/28/2018, $950,000

National Science Foundation (Williams, MC, PI)
“Quantifying Single Molecule DNA-ligand Interactions”
MCB- 0744456, 3/1/2008-2/28/2013, $710,000

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

Publications