Christopher Williams (astronaut)

Williams was born in New York City on October 23, 1983, and considers Potomac, Maryland his hometown. He graduated from Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Maryland in 2001, and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from Stanford University in 2005. He received a Ph.D. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2012, where his research focused on astrophysics and radio cosmology. == Career ==

During high school and college, Williams worked at the United States Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., where he studied supernovae using the Very Large Array radio telescope. He also volunteered as an emergency medical technician and firefighter with the Rockville Volunteer Fire Department in Montgomery County, Maryland. Following his doctoral work, Williams completed residency training at the Harvard Medical Physics Residency Program in 2015. He later joined the faculty at Harvard Medical School as an assistant professor and clinical physicist. He worked in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute, where he served as lead physicist for the institute’s MRI-guided adaptive radiation therapy program. His research focused on developing new image guidance techniques for cancer treatment. In 2017, Williams received the Brigham Research Institute Innovator Award for his contributions to radiation oncology. He is a member of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine. == NASA ==

Williams was selected by NASA as an astronaut candidate in December 2021 and reported for training in January 2022. He was joined by Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikayev on the Soyuz flight. The mission launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and is expected to last approximately eight months. Williams also became the first person of African descent to fly on Soyuz since Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez flew on Soyuz 38 in 1980. == Personal life ==

Williams is married to Aubrey Samost-Williams of North Reading, Massachusetts. They have two daughters. His parents are Roger Williams and Ginger Macomber of Potomac, Maryland. He is of Panamanian descent. He is an Eagle Scout, a private pilot, and enjoys hiking, camping, cooking, and traveling. == References ==