Anthony Williams

Professor Anthony Williams

Professor

School of Physics, Chemistry and Earth Sciences

Faculty of Sciences, Engineering and Technology

Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD - email supervisor to discuss availability.


In 2020 Prof. Williams became the Deputy Director of the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Dark Matter Particle Physics (CDMPP), which is funded for seven years form 2020-2027. He is also Director of the Adelaide Node of the Centre. The CDMPP is a coalition of the University of Adelaide, the Australian National University, the University of Melbourne, the Swinburne University of Technology, the University of Sydney and the University of Western Australia. The mission the Centre is to deliver breakthroughs in our understanding of the Universe through the pursuit of the discovery of dark matter particles which comprise 80% of the mass of the universe.

He was a Chief Investigator (CI) in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Particle Physics at the Terascale (CoEPP), which was funded from 2011-2018. CoEPP was a coalition of the Universities of Adelaide, Melbourne, Monash and Sydney and united fundamental scientific research in Australia in the area of particle physics. Its purpose was to contribute to the discovery of the Higgs boson (discovered in 2012), to understand the origin of mass, to discover new physical laws, and to investigate the possible production of dark matter at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN.

The ARC Special Research Centre for the Subatomic Structure of Matter (CSSM) was funded in 1997 as a result of a national proposal by Professors Anthony W. Thomas and Anthony G. Williams for one of eight Commonwealth Special Research Centres, with funding for a period of nine years. Post ARC funding the CSSM has continued to thrive with a strong research program and is currently administered through the Department of Physics in the School of Physical Sciences. During its lifetime, the CSSM has developed and maintained a strong international reputation and has held and hosted numerous workshops and conferences.

Prof. Williams' work has received more than 9,000 citations in the HEP-Spires data-base, with an h-index of 53. He was elected a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Physics in 1992 and a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2002. In 2001 he was awarded the Boas Medal from the Australian Institute of Physics for original research making the most important contribution to physics in the field of the strong interactions and quantum chromodynamics.'

In August 2022 his textbook "Introduction to Quantum Field Theory: Classical Mechanics to Gauge Field Theories" was published by Cambridge University Press.

Prof. Williams has also contributed extensively over the years to eResearch activities, which is the use of advanced information and communication technologies (ICT's) to enable and enhance research outcomes. This includes contributions as:
- Director, South Australian Partnership for Advanced Computing (SAPAC) for the period 2002-2007 (half-time position);
- Executive Director, Australian Research Collaboration Service (ARCS), 2007-2011 (full-time position) ($22.5 million funding over four years).

I have research interests in: theoretical, computational, and mathematical physics; complex and nonlinear systems; and advanced, high-performance, and grid computing. My research is primarily in the areas of theoretical particle and nuclear physics and computational physics. 

Topics of special interest include: 

  • Understanding the nonperturbative behaviour of QCD and QED and other quantum field theories
  • Lattice gauge theory
  • Testing fundamental symmetries
  • Tests of the Standard Model
  • Particle phenomenology
  • Physics Beyond the Standard Model
  • Dark Matter
  • Appointments

    Date Position Institution name
    2020 - ongoing Deputy Director and Director (of the Adelaide Node) ARC Centre of Excellence for Dark Matter Particle Physics (CDMPP)
    2009 - ongoing Associate Director, Centre for the Subatomic Structure of Matter (CSSM) University of Adelaide
    2007 - 2011 Executive Director Australian Research Collaboration Service (ARCS)
    2004 - 2009 Director, CSSM University of Adelaide
    2003 - ongoing Professor University of Adelaide
    2002 - 2007 Director South Australian Partnership for Advanced Computing (SAPAC)
    1998 - 2003 Associate Professor University of Adelaide
    1997 - 2004 Deputy Director, CSSM University of Adelaide
    1995 - 1997 Senior Lecturer University of Adelaide
    1993 - 1994 Lecturer University of Adelaide
    1989 - 1993 Associate Professor Florida State University
    1986 - 1989 Postdoctoral Research Associate University of Washington
    1984 - 1986 Postdoctoral Research Associate University of Adelaide
  • Awards and Achievements

    Date Type Title Institution Name Country Amount
    2002 Fellowship Fellow of the American Physical Society - United States -
    2001 Award Boas Medal Australian Institute of Physics Australia -
    1992 Fellowship Fellow of the Australian Institute of Physics - Australia -
  • Education

    Date Institution name Country Title
    1981 - 1984 Flinders University of South Australia Australia PhD
    1974 - 1980 University of Adelaide Australia Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical)(Honours)
    1974 - 1979 University of Adelaide Australia Bachelor of Science (Mathematical Physics)(Honours)
  • Research Interests

  • Current Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)

    Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
    2024 Co-Supervisor Dark Matter Theory and Physics Beyond the Standard Model Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Mr Ewan Neil Verschuer Wallace
    2023 Principal Supervisor Studies of dark matter and physics beyond the Standard Model Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Mr George Sanamyan
    2023 Principal Supervisor Extensions of the Standard Model Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Mr Duncan Kenneth McClay
    2022 Co-Supervisor Searching for Dark Matter with the SABRE Experiment Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Kyle Thomas Leaver
    2022 Principal Supervisor Dark Matter and Beyond the Standard Model Physics Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Mr Joshua Andrew Gill
    2022 Principal Supervisor Dark Matter and Beyond the Standard Model Physics Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Bill Michael Loizos
    2022 Principal Supervisor Theoretical High Energy Physics Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Kenn Shern Goh
    2018 Co-Supervisor Beyond the Standard Model Physics Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Nicholas Dean Leerdam
  • Past Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)

    Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
    2020 - 2023 Principal Supervisor A study of supersymmetric decaying dark matter models Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Miss Meera Deshpande
    2020 - 2023 Co-Supervisor Investigation of Two-Higgs-Doublet Models Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Mr Alexander Sean Woodcock
    2018 - 2021 Principal Supervisor Bayesian and Frequentist Global Fits of Minimal 4D Composite Higgs Models Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Mr Ethan Nicholas Carragher
    2017 - 2019 Co-Supervisor Template Functional Forms for the Interpretation of Resonance Search Results at the Large Hadron Collider Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Mr Edmund Xiang Lin Ting
    2017 - 2018 Co-Supervisor Synchronisation on Non-compact Manifolds Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Mr Louis Michel Ritchie
    2017 - 2022 Principal Supervisor Searches for New Physics at the Large Hadron Collider Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Riley Richard Geoffrey Patrick
    2016 - 2020 Principal Supervisor On the detection of dark matter: New prospects for a multi-component dark sector and global fits of Pseudo-Nambu Goldstone dark matter Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Andre Scaffidi
    2016 - 2018 Co-Supervisor Investigating the Effect of Primordial Black Hole Hawking Radiation on the Cosmic Microwave Background Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Mr Harry David Poulter
    2016 - 2019 Principal Supervisor Oscillations and Sterile Neutrinos Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Zachary Maxwell Matthews
    2015 - 2020 Principal Supervisor Two-Higgs-Doublet Models: A Global Study Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Filip Rajec
    2015 - 2018 Co-Supervisor Investigation of Higgs Portal Dark Matter Models: From Collider, Indirect and Direct Searches to Electroweak Baryogenesis Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Ankit Beniwal
    2015 - 2019 Principal Supervisor The Landscape of Composite Higgs Models Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Daniel Thomas Murnane
    2014 - 2016 Principal Supervisor Collider Constraints Applied to Simplified Models of Dark Matter Fitted to the Fermi-LAT Gamma Ray Excess using Bayesian Techniques Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Mr Guy Hamilton Pitman
    2014 - 2017 Principal Supervisor Aspects of E6 Inspired Supersymmetric Models Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Dylan Harries
    2014 - 2016 Principal Supervisor On the Detection of Dark Matter: Likelihoods and Limits on Spin-independent and Spin-dependent WIMP Couplings and the Implementation of Radiative Muon Decays in Dark Matter Analyses Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Mr Andre Scaffidi
    2011 - 2015 Co-Supervisor Hadrons and Quarks in Dense Matter: From Nuclear Matter to Neutron Stars Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Dr Daniel Leslie Whittenbury
    2007 - 2011 Co-Supervisor Gluonic Profile and Confining String in Static Mesons and Baryons at Finite Temperature Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Ahmed El Bakry Mahmoud
    2007 - 2012 Co-Supervisor Quantum Computation and a Universal Quantum Computer Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Antonio Lagana
    2006 - 2010 Principal Supervisor Excitations of the Nucleon in Lattice QCD Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Selim Mahbub
    2006 - 2011 Co-Supervisor Quantum Computing, Quantum Games and Geometric Algebra Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr James Chappell
    2006 - 2009 Principal Supervisor Applications of the Octet Baryon Quark-Meson Coupling Model to Hybrid Stars Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Dr Jonathan Carroll
    2005 - 2009 Co-Supervisor Lattice vs. Continuum: Landau Gauge Fixing and 't Hooft-Polyakov Monopoles Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Dhagash Mehta
    2003 - 2007 Co-Supervisor Meson Properties from Lattice QCD Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr John Hedditch
    2003 - 2006 Principal Supervisor Electomagnetic properties of baryons from lattice QCD Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mrs Sharada Boinepalli
    2003 - 2007 Co-Supervisor Baryon Spectroscopy from Lattice QCD Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Ben Lasscock
    2003 - 2007 Principal Supervisor Gauge Fixing and BRST Formalism in Non-Abelian Gauge Theories Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Marco Ghiotti
    2003 - 2006 Principal Supervisor Landau-gauge Green's Functions in Unquenched Lattice QCD Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mrs Maria Parappilly
    2002 - 2003 Principal Supervisor Gauge Fixing, the Gribov Problem and BRST Symmetry Master of Science Master Full Time Mr Mark Stanford
    2000 - 2004 Principal Supervisor Lattice Quantum Chromodynamics with FLIC Overlap Fermions Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Dr Waseem Kamleh
    1999 - 2002 Principal Supervisor Baryon Spectroscopy with FLIC Fermions Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Prof James Zanotti
    1998 - 2002 Principal Supervisor Improved Actions in Lattice QCD Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Dr Frederic Daniel Bonnet
    1997 - 2001 Principal Supervisor Investigation of Topology, Instantons, and the Nahm Transform in Lattice QCD using Highly Improved Operators Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Sundance Bilson-Thompson
    1996 - 2014 Principal Supervisor Regularization and Renormalization of Non-Perturbative Quantum Electrodynamics via the Dyson-Schwinger Equations Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Tom Sizer
  • Committee Memberships

    Date Role Committee Institution Country
    2017 - 2017 Chair Evaluation Committee Institute for High Energy Physics (HEPHY) Austria
  • Position: Professor
  • Phone: 83133546
  • Email: anthony.williams@adelaide.edu.au
  • Fax: 83133551
  • Campus: North Terrace
  • Building: Physics, floor First Floor
  • Room: 126
  • Org Unit: Physics

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