Head, Computational Ecology and Environmental Science Group
I received my PhD in Physical Oceanography from Scripps Institution of Oceanography in 1991. From 1985 to 1996, I worked as a self employed Computer Programmer, during which time I co-authored Borland’s Turbo Debugger and Turbo Profiler. Since 1997, I have held various research positions in theoretical ecology and ecoinformatics at San Francisco State University, the University of California in Santa Cruz and Santa Barbara, and Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory. I moved to Microsoft Research in 2006 to start the CEES group, doing research and developing computational methods in ecology and environmental sciences. The group is working with a range of academic partners to develop advanced computational methods, including sensor networks, data management tools, computational models and visualization techniques to tackle a range of ecological and environmental problems.
My own research is primarily in two areas. I study food webs and other ecological networks from both a structural and dynamical systems perspective. I also work on various informatics projects addressing issues ranging from data management to visualization techniques.
More details can be found in my CV.
- Tamara N. Romanuk, Yun Zhou, Ulrich Brose, Eric L. Berlow, Richard J. Williams, and Neo D. Martinez, Predicting invasion success in complex ecological networks, in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, vol. 364, no. 1524, pp. 1743-1754, June 2009
- Jennifer A. Dunne and Richard J. Williams, Cascading extinctions and community collapse in model food webs, in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, vol. 364, no. 1524, pp. 1711-1723, June 2009
- Richard J. Williams, Simple MaxEnt models explain food web degree distributions, in Theoretical Ecology, Springer Verlag, 9 May 2009
- Eric L. Berlow, Jennifer A. Dunne, Neo D. Martinez, Phillip B. Stark, Richard J. Williams, and Ulrich Brose, Simple prediction of interaction strengths in complex food webs, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, vol. 106, pp. 187-191, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 6 January 2009
- Richard J. Williams and Neo D. Martinez, Success and its limits among structural models of complex food webs, in Journal of Animal Ecology, January 2008
- J. A. Dunne, R.J. Williams, N.D. Martinez, R.A. Wood, and D.H. Erwin, Compilation and network analyses of Cambrian food webs, in PLoS Biology, vol. 6, January 2008
- Richard J. Williams, Effects of network and dynamical model structure on species persistence in large model food webs, in Theoretical Ecology, January 2008
- William J. Sutherland, Mark J. Bailey, Ian P. Bainbridge, Tom Brereton, Jaimie T. A. Dick, Joanna Drewitt, Nicholas K. Dulvy, Nicholas R. Dusic, Robert P. Freckleton, Kevin J. Gaston, Pam M. Gilder, Rhys E. Green, A. Louise Heathwaite, Sally M. Johnson, David W. Macdonald, Roger Mitchell, Daniel Osborn, Roger P. Owen, Jules Pretty, Stephanie V. Prior, Havard Prosser, Andrew S. Pullin, Paul Rose, Andrew Stott, Tom Tew, Chris D. Thomas, Des B. A. Thompson, Juliet A. Vickery, Matt Walker, Clive Walmsley, Stuart Warrington, Andrew R. Watkinson, Rich J. Williams, Rosie Woodroffe, and Harry J. Woodroof, Future novel threats and opportunities facing UK biodiversity identified by horizon scanning, in Journal of Applied Ecology, January 2008
- U. Brose, T. Jonsson, E. L. Berlow, P. Warren, C. Banasek-Richter, L. F. Bersier, J. L. Blanchard, T. Brey, S. R. Carpenter, M. F. C. Blandenier, L. Cushing, H. A. Dawah, T. Dell, F. Edwards, S. Harper-Smith, U. Jacob, M. E. Ledger, N. D. Martinez, J. Memmott, K. Mintenbeck, J. K. Pinnegar, B. C. Rall, T. S. Rayner, D. C. Reuman, L. Ruess, W. Ulrich, R. J. Williams, G. Woodward, and J. E. Cohen, Consumer-resource body-size relationships in natural food webs, in Ecology, vol. 87, no. 10, pp. 2411-2417, January 2006
