{{Short description|American ornithologist}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Heather Williams | birth_date = {{birth year and age|1955}} | birth_place = Spokane, Washington | fields = Ornithology | workplaces = Williams College | alma_mater = Bowdoin College<br>Rockefeller University }}
'''Heather Williams''' (born 1955 in Spokane, Washington) is an American ornithologist and professor at Williams College since 1988.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.williams.edu/Biology/Faculty_Staff/hwilliams/hwilliams.shtml |title=Williams Biology Faculty and Staff Williams |access-date=2010-04-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101230072950/http://www.williams.edu/Biology/Faculty_Staff/hwilliams/hwilliams.shtml |archive-date=2010-12-30 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>[http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1P2-8242495.html "She knows why the caged bird sings Heather Williams studies the secrets of bird song"], ''The Boston Globe'', M. R. Montgomery, August 26, 1993</ref> As of October 2025, she is the Visiting Professor of Neuroscience and William Dwight Whitney Professor of Biology, Emerita at Williams.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Heather Williams |url=https://biology.williams.edu/profile/heather-williams/ |access-date=2025-10-03 |website=Biology |language=en-US}}</ref> She graduated from Bowdoin College with an A.B. in biology in 1977, from Rockefeller University with a Ph.D. in neuroscience in 1985, and was postdoctoral fellow, Field Research Center. She was a 1993 MacArthur Fellow. Williams' most notable work highlights bird song data<ref>{{Cite web |title=The (Bird) Song Does Not Remain the Same |url=https://bowdoin.edu/kent-island/stories/the-bird-song-does-not-remain-the-same.html |access-date=2022-09-28 |website=Kent Island |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=The (Bird) Song Does Not Remain the Same |url=https://www.bowdoin.edu/kent-island/stories/the-bird-song-does-not-remain-the-same.html |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20230925064254/https://www.bowdoin.edu/kent-island/stories/the-bird-song-does-not-remain-the-same.html |archive-date=2023-09-25 |access-date=2026-01-15 |work=Kent Island |language=en}}</ref> gathered on Kent Island, also known as the "Bowdoin Science Station".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Kent Island |url=https://www.bowdoin.edu/kent-island/index.html |access-date=2026-01-15 |website=Kent Island |language=en}}</ref>
==Works== * {{cite book |last1=Zeigler |first1=Harris Philip |last2=Marler |first2=Peter |title=Behavioral Neurobiology of Birdsong |date=2004 |publisher=New York Academy of Sciences |isbn=978-1-57331-472-5 |oclc=55078517 }} * {{cite journal |last1=Williams |first1=Heather |last2=Scharf |first2=Andrew |last3=Ryba |first3=Anna R. |last4=Ryan Norris |first4=D. |last5=Mennill |first5=Daniel J. |last6=Newman |first6=Amy E. M. |last7=Doucet |first7=Stéphanie M. |last8=Blackwood |first8=Julie C. |title=Cumulative cultural evolution and mechanisms for cultural selection in wild bird songs |journal=Nature Communications |date=11 July 2022 |volume=13 |issue=1 |page=4001 |doi=10.1038/s41467-022-31621-9 |bibcode=2022NatCo..13.4001W |pmc=9276793 |pmid=35821243 }}
== References == {{reflist}}
==External links== * {{cite press release |title=Bird Song Discoveries May Lead To Refinement Of Darwinian Theory |url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090130221227.htm |work=ScienceDaily |publisher=Williams College |date=31 January 2009 }} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20100528162520/http://www.williams.edu/Neuroscience/annual_report_02.htm Essel Program, Annual Report 2002] *''Notable women in the life sciences: a biographical dictionary'', Editors Benjamin F. Shearer, Barbara Smith Shearer, Greenwood Press, 1996, {{ISBN|978-0-313-29302-3}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Heather}} Category:American ornithologists Category:American women ornithologists Category:1955 births Category:Bowdoin College alumni Category:Rockefeller University alumni Category:Williams College faculty Category:MacArthur Fellows Category:Living people Category:American neuroscientists Category:American women neuroscientists Category:Scientists from Spokane, Washington Category:Academics from Spokane, Washington
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