Asher Williams, PhD

Dr. Williams is a Trinidad and Tobago national scholar and a former Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow at Cornell University in the group of Prof. Matthew DeLisa, where her research was aimed at cell-free biosynthesis of conjugate vaccines against emerging pathogens. She received her PhD in chemical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2020, co-advised by Profs. Mattheos Koffas and Robert Linhardt, where she focused on engineering microorganisms for the efficient biosynthesis of carbohydrate-based drugs and related enzymes. Dr. Williams was awarded RPI’s Presidential Graduate Research Fellowship, named a Class of 2020 Changemaker and an MIT Rising Star in Chemical Engineering, and is listed by Cell Mentor as one of 1000 Inspiring Black Scientists in America.