Austin Beatty Williams (October 17, 1919 – October 27, 1999) was an American carcinologist, "the acknowledged expert on and leader in studies of the systematics of eastern American decapod crustaceans".[1]
Austin B. Williams was born on October 17, 1919, in Plattsburg, Missouri, the eldest of three children to Oliver Perry Williams and Lucy Sell.[1] He was educated at McPherson College and the University of Kansas, gaining his Ph.D. in 1951.[1] He then worked at the University of North Carolina Institute of Fisheries Research, the University of Illinois, before gaining a position in the systematics laboratory of the National Marine Fisheries Service, based at the Smithsonian Institution.[1] He was married and had one son and two grandchildren. He died of canceratFalls Church, Virginia, on October 27, 1999.[1]
Williams' first scientific paper, published in 1952, described six new species of freshwater crayfish from the Ozark MountainsofArkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma;[2] he continued to publish until his death in 1999, accruing 118 publications in that time.[1] His most important works[1] include monographs on the marine decapod crustaceans of the Carolinas,[3] on the decapods of the Atlantic coast of the United States,[4] and on the lobsters of the world's oceans.[5][6] He won several awards, including the Crustacean Society's Excellence in Research Award[7] and the American Fisheries Society's Oscar Elton Sette Award.[1]
Austin B. Williams described or co-described 101 new taxa of decapod crustaceans, from the rankofsubspeciestosuperfamily (obelisks mark fossil taxa):[1]
One genus and several species were named by other scientists in honor of Williams. They include:[1][8]
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