Heather Williams (born 1955 in

Spokane, Washington Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the ...

) is an American

ornithologist Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...

, and professor at

Williams College Williams College is a private liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a colonist from the Province of Massachusetts Bay who was kille ...

since 1988. She graduated from

Bowdoin College Bowdoin College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine. When Bowdoin was chartered in 1794, Maine was still a part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The college offers 34 majors and 36 minors, as well as several joint eng ...

with an A.B. in Biology in 1977, from

Rockefeller University The Rockefeller University is a private biomedical research and graduate-only university in New York City, New York. It focuses primarily on the biological and medical sciences and provides doctoral and postdoctoral education. It is classif ...

with a Ph.D. in Neuroscience in 1985, and was Postdoctoral fellow, Field Research Center. She was a 1993

MacArthur Fellow The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to between 20 and 30 indi ...

. Williams
most notable work
highlights bird song data gathered on

Kent Island Kent Island is the largest island in the Chesapeake Bay and a historic place in Maryland. To the east, a narrow channel known as the Kent Narrows barely separates the island from the Delmarva Peninsula, and on the other side, the island is sep ...

also known as th
"Bowdoin Science Station"
In the summer of 2022
she published an article
ref name=":0"> that was featured in Nature.com

Works

*''Behavioral neurobiology of birdsong'', Editors Harris Philip Zeigler, Peter Marler, New York Academy of Sciences, 2004, *''Cumulative cultural evolution and mechanisms for cultural selection in wild bird songs,'' Authors: Heather Williams, Andrew Scharf, Anna R. Ryba, D. Ryan Norris, Daniel J. Mennill, Amy E. M. Newman, Stéphanie M. Doucet & Julie C. Blackwood, Nature.com, 2022, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-31621-9#citeas

External links

"Bird Song Discoveries May Lead To Refinement Of Darwinian Theory"
''ScienceDaily'' (Jan. 31, 2009)

*''Notable women in the life sciences: a biographical dictionary'', Editors Benjamin F. Shearer, Barbara Smith Shearer, Greenwood Press, 1996, American ornithologists Women ornithologists 1955 births People from Spokane, Washington Bowdoin College alumni Rockefeller University alumni Williams College faculty MacArthur Fellows Living people American neuroscientists American women neuroscientists {{US-ornithologist-stub