USU Uintah Basin Professor Becky Williams Cites Unexpected Opportunities in Inaugural Lecture

VERNAL, Utah — Utah State University Uintah Basin faculty, staff and students gathered on April 3 to celebrate the inaugural lecture of Becky Williams, newly promoted professor of biology in The College of Arts & Sciences.

During her lecture, Williams highlighted many of the projects, accomplishments and collaborators she has been involved with throughout her career.

“While Dr. Williams thrives in her scholarship, it is her focus on students and community partnerships that help USU Uintah Basin fulfill its local land-grant mission,” said David Law, associate vice president of USU Uintah Basin. “As a student herself, Dr. Williams was transformed at the intersections of opportunity, research and mentorship. Dr. Williams now pays this forward by providing similar opportunities for her students. Many of her students are now the leaders of community agencies that provide continued opportunities and support for current students. Dr. Williams is the epitome of a land-grant professor, as she not only enriches her students' lives, but also those of many others in rural Utah.”

The inaugural lecture series honors members of the USU faculty who have completed the promotion and tenure process and have been promoted to the rank of professor in the last year. Earning the title of full professor is one of the highest honors a faculty member can achieve. It represents years of excellence in instruction, research and service to both the university and community. USU marks this achievement with an inaugural lecture — a tradition where newly promoted professors share moments and insights from their academic journey, their research and their hopes for the future.

Williams opened her lecture with a quote, which stated that “luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” She shared many of the opportunities she has had and how the various changes in direction have allowed her to grow, branch out and do many different things.

She opened speaking on her undergraduate research opportunities as a student at USU and how being involved in paid undergraduate research helped change her career goals and aspirations. She had the opportunity to do research on toxins effects on garter snakes, all while getting help to pay for school. Williams feels strongly that paid opportunities for students level the playing field, allowing more students the opportunity to engage in science outside of the classroom.

“When I was an undergraduate, there was an advertisement to work in a research lab of Dr. Edmund Brody Jr.,” she shared. “I needed money, and as a poor student, I thought it sounded really fun to play with snakes. As soon as I learned that I could actually get paid for playing with snakes, I took a complete left turn in my career and decided that I wanted to continue to do research.”

Williams then spoke on how she became interested in her field of chemical ecology. She shared studies she had performed around the toxin TTX (tetrodotoxin) and its effects on snakes that eat poisonous newts. These early forays into TTX allowed her to pursue an opportunity to be a Ph.D. student under Roy Caldwell to study TTX in blue-ringed octopuses. She would take another career turn in her post-doctorate work, as she started to study bioluminescent bacteria in squid and its ability to produce TTX. Prior to her post-doctorate work, she worked as an adjunct professor at USU and Utah Valley University.

Through all the turns in research, Williams has brought students along with her to do research and contribute to furthering knowledge. She is an example of someone who had their lives changed by an opportunity and looks to always give similar opportunities to students. Not only is it something they can put on a resume, but it helps them develop critical skills that employers want them to demonstrate, such as critical thinking, leadership, collaboration and teamwork, organization, ability to write and communicate with others, and more.

“These research experiences really enable the students to successfully begin their careers because they have all of those kinds of intangible skills,” she said. “We’ve been able to do all of these wonderful things and work with students on amazing projects. It has been so very, very fun for me.”

Many other scientists tend to be laser-focused on one topic. However, Williams feels that as she has become a “Jill of all trades,” as she put it in her inaugural lecture, it has allowed her to be a mentor to students and a valued expert in the Uintah Basin.

“I've gotten to do all of these crazy different things,” she said. “It's just been such an amazing journey. Whenever you are on your journey, or a student is on theirs, there is so much room to take a hard left turn and end up somewhere completely different than you ever thought you would be. It can be great and rewarding. It’s OK if you are not super focused when you know exactly what you want to do for your entire life.”

Williams is a USU alumnus, graduating with her bachelor’s degree in 1999 and her master’s degree in 2003, both in biology. She went on to earn a doctorate degree in integrative biology from California Berkeley in 2008. After serving one year as an instructor at USU, she would go on to do her post-doctoral research at New Mexico State University before joining the USU Uintah Basin faculty as an assistant professor in 2011. She was promoted to associate professor in 2017. Williams’ research focuses on predator-prey interactions and chemical ecology.

Operating campuses in Vernal and Roosevelt for more than 50 years, Utah State University Uintah Basin gives students the personalized attention and small class sizes of a small-town college with the resources of a large university, all in the backdrop of the outdoor oasis that is the Uinta Mountains and Ashley National Forest. With degree options ranging from associate to doctorate degrees and more than 125 programs available, as well as access to the renowned Bingham Research Center, USU Uintah Basin offers programs that help fuel local economies and empower individuals and their communities. Learn more at uintahbasin.usu.edu.