Carmen Williams

Williams earned a B.S.E., magna cum laude, in electrical engineering from Duke University in 1981.^[1] From 1981 to 1982, she was an engineer in the Computer Graphics Design Division at the IBM in Poughkeepsie, New York.^[1] She completed an M.D. from the Duke University School of Medicine in 1986.^[1] She conducted a residency in obstetrics and gynecology at the Pennsylvania Hospital from 1986 to 1990.^[1] Williams completed a clinical fellowship in reproductive endocrinology and infertility at the University of Pennsylvania from 1990 to 1992.^[1] She earned a Ph.D. in molecular and cell biology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1997.^[1] From 1997 to 2000, she was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Biology under Richard M. Schultz at the University of Pennsylvania.^[1]

From 2000 to 2007, Williams was an assistant professor in the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Pennsylvania.^[1] In 2007, she became a tenure-track clinical investigator in the Reproductive Medicine Group in the Reproductive Developmental Biology Laboratory at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.^[1] She was promoted to senior investigator in 2016 and deputy chief of the laboratory the following year.^[1] The focus of Williams' research is on the basic reproductive biology of embryo development and how the environment impacts reproduction.^[2] Among her most important research accomplishments is the discovery of mechanisms that control how well calcium signaling works in very early embryos just after fertilization.^[2][3] In 2022, Williams was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.^[2][4] Her current research endeavors include exploring and elucidating the role of epigenetics in the reproductive consequences of neonatal exposure to xenoestrogens.^[5]