Dr. David A. Williams is currently serving as a Faculty Research Associate in the Department of Geological Sciences at Arizona State University. He served as a Visiting Assistant Professor at ASU in 2001-2002, in which he co-taught Physical Geology and a graduate seminar in Planetary Volcanology.

David is currently perfoming research in volcanology and planetary geology, with a focus on planetary mapping, geochemical, and remote sensing studies. His research has included computer modeling of seismic wave propagation through planetary interiors, visible and near-infrared spectroscopy of the lunar surface, planetary geologic mapping of the satellites of Jupiter, computer modeling of the physical and geochemical evolution of lava flows in a variety of planetary environments, and petrologic study of lava samples from Mount St Helens.

He was involved with NASA’s/ Magellan/ Mission to Venus and was a member of the Solid-State Imaging Team of NASA’s/Galileo/ Mission to Jupiter. Dr. Williams is currently serving as an Associate Investigator on the High Resolution Stereo Camera Team of the European Space Agency’s/ Mars Express/ mission. He is also involved in education/public outreach activities including giving talks to school and civic groups and developing educational materials.

David received his Bachelor of Science in Astronomy & Astrophysics (with minors in Mathematics and Geology) from Indiana University in 1989, and his Master of Science in Geology from Arizona State University in 1992. He received his Ph.D. in Geology from the University of Alabama in August 1998, where he was a three-time Graduate Council Research Fellow and received the award for Outstanding Research by a Doctoral Student from the University of Alabama Graduate School in 1998. He has also performed geologic field studies in Hawaii, the Canadian subarctic, Western Australia, and South Africa. David has been part of the faculty at ASU for over seven years, and has recently published papers in the/Journal of Geophysical Research/,/ Bulletin of Volcanology/, and the planetary science journal/ Icarus/.

Wow! At this point you might be asking..”What is Dr. Williams, an accomplished scientist, doing on a show dedicated to scifi, horror and fantasy?” Well, we’re glad you asked.

David is a life-long Star Trek and Star Wars fan. He is a member of the United Federation of Phoenix, the second-longest continuously-running Star Trek and general Science Fiction fan club in the US. He served as president of the UFP from 2000-2002. He has been a regular Program Participant at the LepreCon and CopperCon sci-fi/fantasy conventions in Phoenix for the last 7 years, where he serves on panels related to space science and sci-fi media (particularly Star Trek). He will be giving multiple space science presentations at the Creation 40th Anniversary Star Trek Convention in Las Vegas this August.

If you are ready for a very interesting conversation that will blend the science of Star Trek with the science of our universe then you will not want to miss Mike and Evo’s exciting interview with David.

Slice of SciFi Show #064 will be ready for download on July 5, 2006.