Rate My Professor Paul Williams

Paul Williams is Emeritus Professor of Molecular Microbiology at the Biodiscovery Institute and School of Life Sciences in the Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences at the University of Nottingham. He previously served as Head of the School of Molecular Medical Sciences from 2008 to 2013 and as Director of the Institute of Infection, Immunity & Inflammation from 1996 to 2008. His research focuses on bacterial cell-cell communication through quorum sensing, the discovery of new antibacterial agents, and the development of biofilm-resistant polymers to prevent medical device-associated infections. He has published over 400 research articles and patents and is a member of the European Academy of Microbiology.

Williams has held leadership roles including service on the Medical Research Council Infection & Immunology board and the BBSRC Plants and Microbes panel, as well as on the scientific advisory board of the European Union Joint Programming Initiative in Antimicrobial Resistance. He was a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator from 2014 to 2022 and Director of the Wellcome Trust PhD Training Programme in Antimicrobials and Antimicrobial Resistance from 2016 to 2025. Recent publications include work on combinatorial discovery of microtopographical landscapes that resist biofilm formation (2025) and discovery of a polymer resistant to bacterial biofilm, swarming, and encrustation (2023).