Brian Williams' Personal Webpage

I'm currently a sixth-year Ph.D. student in the Physics Department at North Carolina State University. My research advisors are Dr. Steve Reynolds and Dr. Kazimierz Borkowski. My research is in astrophysics, particularly the study of supernova remnants and their interaction with the interstellar medium. In my spare time, I play a lot of Ultimate.

Contact Info

Email: bjwilli2 at ncsu dot edu
Office: 411B Riddick Hall
Mailing Address: 421 Riddick Hall, 2401 Stinson Drive, Box 8202, Raleigh, NC 27695
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Downloads

My CV
My prelim exam talk Download a PDF copy of the talk given for my preliminary thesis defense.
NCSU Grad. Research Symposium Poster Somehow this won first place at the symposium.

Research

What is a Supernova Remnant? An introduction
My LMC SNRs page
My page dedicated to Kepler's Supernova Remnant

List of Refereed Publications

"Dust Destruction in a Non-Radiative Shock in the Cygnus Loop," R. Sankrit, B.J. Williams, K.J. Borkowski, T.J. Gaetz, J.C. Raymond, W.P. Blair, P. Ghavamian, K.S. Long, "Shock Waves in Space and Astrophysical Environments, 8th Annual International Astrophysics Conference, AIP Conference Proceedings, Volume 1183, Editors Xianzhi Ao, Ross Burrows and Gary P. Zank, Kona Hawaii, 1-7 May 2009"

"Spitzer Space Telescope Observations of the Crab's Twin: B0540-69.3," The Astrophysical Journal, Vol 687, 1054. B.J. Williams, K.J. Borkowski, S.P. Reynolds, W.P. Blair, P. Ghavamian, R. Sankrit, S.P. Hendrick, K.S. Long, J.C. Raymond, R.C. Smith, S. Points, J. Morse, & P.F. Winkler. Download

"Spitzer Space Telescope Observations of Kepler's Supernova Remnant: A Detailed Look at the Circumstellar Dust Component," The Astrophysical Journal. Vol 662, 998. W.P. Blair, P. Ghavamian, K.S. Long, B.J. Williams, K.J. Borkowski, S.P. Reynolds, R. Sankrit. (2007) Download

"Dust Destruction in Fast Shocks of Core-Collapse Supernova Remnants in the Large Magellanic Cloud," Astrophysical Journal Letters Vol. 652, 33. B.J. Williams, K.J. Borkowski, S.P. Reynolds, W.P. Blair, P. Ghavamian, S.P. Hendrick, K.S. Long, J.C. Raymond, R. Sankrit, R.C. Smith, S. Points, & P.F. Winkler. (2006). Download

"Dust Destruction in Type Ia Supernova Remnants in the Large Magellanic Cloud," Astrophysical Journal Letters. Vol. 642, 141. K.J. Borkowski, B.J. Williams, S.P. Reynolds, W.P. Blair, P. Ghavamian, R. Sankrit, S.P. Hendrick, K.S. Long, J.C. Raymond, R.C. Smith, S. Points, P.F. Winkler. (2006). Download

Published Abstracts

(Only ones that I'm first author on)

"Spitzer IRS Observations of Young Type Ia Supernova Remnants in the Large Magellanic Cloud,"Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 41. B.J. Williams, K.J. Borkowski, S.P. Reynolds, W.P. Blair, P. Ghavamian, R. Sankrit, S.P. Hendrick, K.S. Long, J.C. Raymond, R.C. Smith, S. Points, P.F. Winkler. (2009). p. 463.

"Spitzer Survey of Magellanic Clouds Supernova Remnants: Dust Content in Core-Collapse Supernovae," Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 38. B.J. Williams, K.J. Borkowski, S.P. Reynolds, W.P. Blair, P. Ghavamian, R. Sankrit, S.P. Hendrick, K.S. Long, J.C. Raymond, R.C. Smith, S. Points, P.F. Winkler. (2006). p. 74.

"Dust Destruction in Supernova Remnants: Spitzer Observations," Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society. Vol. 37. B.J. Williams, K.J. Borkowski, S.P. Reynolds, W.P. Blair, P. Ghavamian, R. Sankrit, S.P. Hendrick, K.S. Long, J.C. Raymond, R.C. Smith, S. Points, P.F. Winkler. (2005). p. 1436.

"Dust Destruction in Type Ia SNRs in the Large Magellanic Cloud," Proceedings of the Six Years of Science with Chandra Symposium. B.J. Williams, K.J. Borkowski, S.P. Reynolds, W.P. Blair, P. Ghavamian, R. Sankrit, S.P. Hendrick, K.S. Long, J.C. Raymond, R.C. Smith, S. Points, P.F. Winkler. (2005). http://cxc.harvard.edu/symposium_2005/proceedings/sn_snr_isol_ns.html

Conferences Attended

Spitzer Data Analysis Workshop, March 21-25, 2005, Spitzer Science Center, Pasadena, CA.
Six Years of Science with Chandra Symposium, November 2-4, 2005, Boston, MA.
Winter Meeting of the American Astronomical Society, January 8-12, 2006, Washington, DC.
Summer Meeting of the American Astronomical Society, June 4-8, 2006, Calgary, Alberta, CA.
Winter Meeting of the American Astronomical Society, January 6-10, 2007, Seattle, WA.
Winter Meeting of the American Astronomical Society, January 4-9, 2009, Long Beach, CA.

Book Covers

Figure 6 of Blair et al. (2007) was chosen for the cover of "Astrophysics of Gaseous Nebulae and Active Galactic Nuclei".