Reva Williams

Reva Kay Williams is a theoretical astrophysicist. She is the first person to successfully work out the Penrose process using Einstein's Theory of Relativity to extract energy from black holes. Also, she is the first Black American woman to earn a PhD in theoretical astrophysics. Her work focuses on general relativistic astrophysics.

Reva Kay Williams
Nationality	American
Education	Malcolm X College A.A. in liberal arts, 1977 Northwestern University BA in astronomy & physics, 1980 Indiana University Bloomington MA in astrophysics, 1990 Indiana University Bloomington Ph.D. in astrophysics, 1991^[1]
Known for	First person to successfully work out the Penrose process^[1] First Black American woman to receive a Ph.D. in theoretical astrophysics Frame-dragging Gravitomagnetism
Scientific career
Fields	Astrophysics
Institutions	University of Toledo University of Florida Bennett College
Thesis	Extracting X-rays, gamma rays, and electron-positron pairs from supermassive Kerr black holes using the Penrose mechanism (1991)
Doctoral advisor	Richard H. Durisen

Early life and education

Williams was born in Memphis, Tennessee and moved to Chicago at the age of 6. She received an A.A. in liberal arts from Malcolm X College in 1977 and a B.A. in astronomy from Northwestern University in 1980. Williams completed both a M.A. and a Ph.D. at Indiana University Bloomington, and when she completed her degree in 1991 she became the first Black American woman to receive a doctorate in theoretical astrophysics.^[1]

Penrose process

With the publication of her Ph.D. thesis in 1991, Williams became the first person to work out the Penrose process of black holes.^[2] In 1995, Williams published a paper in Physical Review D of research from her Ph.D. thesis.^[3] Her calculations explained that black hole jets are emitted as escaping tornado-like coils of high energy photons and relativistic electrons, and as black holes drag spacetime into rotation near their cores, they may also produce uneven jets.^[4][5]

In April 2004, Williams published a letter titled "A Word from a Black Female Relativistic Astrophysicist: Setting the Record Straight on Black Holes" addressing her experience with breakthrough black hole physics and not receiving appropriate citations and others taking credit for her work.^[6]

Postdoctoral career

 

Williams was the first person to successfully work out the Penrose process, which explains how energy can be extracted from a black hole. Above, a spectacular view of black hole outflows from the radio galaxy Centaurus A.

Williams was awarded a National Research Council Ford postdoctoral minority fellowship and was a postdoctoral associate at the University of Florida from 1993-1996.^[7][8] In January 1997, she worked as a visiting assistant professor of physics at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (North Carolina A&T),^[8] and in 1998, she became an associate professor of astrophysics and director of the Center for Women and Science at Bennett College, remaining in that position until 2001.^[8]

In 2000, Williams received a grant to work with Robert M. Hjellming in Aspen, Colorado and Socorro, New Mexico studying microquasars. At that time, she was considered as the only Black American female astrophysicist in the [United States],^[9] and as of 2004 was one of the few women in the world researching black holes.^[10]

In 2009, she was awarded a National Science Foundation grant to "investigate the jet structure and energy generation of quasars and other active galactic nuclei (AGNs), microquasars, and gamma-ray bursters, all of which are believed to be powered by rotating (Kerr) black holes."^[11][12]

Since 2009, Williams has been a research assistant professor at the University of Toledo.^[13][7] Her continuing research interests are relativistic astrophysics, general relativity, cosmology, and extragalactic astronomy.^[8]

Williams gave a plenary speech at the astrobiology conference, AbSciCon, in the spring of 2022, organized by American Geophysical Union and NASA.^[14]

Selected publications

• Williams, RK (15 May 1995). "Extracting x rays, gamma rays, and relativistic e⁻e⁺ pairs from supermassive Kerr black holes using the Penrose mechanism". Physical Review D. 51 (10): 5387–5427. Bibcode:1995PhRvD..51.5387W. doi:10.1103/physrevd.51.5387. PMID 10018300. Retrieved 23 February 2021.
• Williams, Reva Kay (November 1999). "Extracting Energy-Momentum from Rotating Black Holes Using the Penrose Mechanism". 66th Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Section of the American Physical Society. 66. Bibcode:1999APS..SES..JD03W. Retrieved 24 February 2021.
• Williams, R.K. (May 2000). "Production of the High Energy-Momentum Spectra of Quasars 3C 279 and 3C 273 Using the Penrose Mechanism". Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society. 32: 754. Bibcode:2000AAS...196.5021W. Retrieved 24 February 2021.
• Williams, Reva Kay (August 2004). "Collimated Escaping Vortical Polar e⁻e⁺ Jets Intrinsically Produced by Rotating Black Holes and Penrose Processes". The Astrophysical Journal. 611 (2): 952–963. arXiv:astro-ph/0404135. Bibcode:2004ApJ...611..952W. doi:10.1086/422304.
• Williams, Reva Kay (June 2005). "Gravitomagnetic field and Penrose scattering processes". Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 1045: 232–45. Bibcode:2005NYASA1045..232W. doi:10.1196/annals.1350.018. PMID 15980315. S2CID 12183953. Retrieved 23 February 2021.

References

1. Williams, Scott. "Reva Kay Williams". Astronomers of the African Diaspora. Archived from the original on 3 April 2014. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
2. Carey, Charles W. (2008). African Americans in Science: An Encyclopedia of People and Progress. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781851099986.
3. Williams, R. K. (1995). "Extracting X rays, Ύ rays, and relativistic e⁻e⁺ pairs from supermassive Kerr black holes using the Penrose mechanism". Physical Review D. 51 (10): 5387–5427. Bibcode:1995PhRvD..51.5387W. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.51.5387. PMID 10018300.
4. "Astrophysicist Helps Crack A Black Hole Mystery: Energy Jets". University of Florida News. 5 August 2004. Archived from the original on 21 February 2021. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
5. Williams, R. K. (2004). "Collimated escaping vortical polar e⁻e⁺ jets intrinsically produced by rotating black holes and Penrose processes". The Astrophysical Journal. 611 (2): 952–963. arXiv:astro-ph/0404135. Bibcode:2004ApJ...611..952W. doi:10.1086/422304. S2CID 1350543.
6. Williams, Reva (2004). "A Word from a Black Female Relativistic Astrophysicist: Setting the Record Straight on Black Holes". arXiv:physics/0404029.
7. "Speakers & Topics". AbSciCon 2022. Archived from the original on 21 February 2021. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
8. "More about me". revakaywilliams.com. Archived from the original on 24 February 2021. Retrieved 24 February 2021.
9. "Professor Wins Science Research Grant". Greensboro News & Record. 17 June 2000. Archived from the original on 23 February 2021. Retrieved 23 February 2021.
10. Watson, Wayne D. (4 November 2004). "Alumna Dr. Reva Kay Williams, Malcom X College". City Colleges of Chicago. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 February 2021. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
11. "NSF Award Search: Award#0909098 - Theoretical and Numerical Investigation of a Unified Astrophysical Rotating Black Hole Model for Active Galactic Nuclei, Microquasars, and Gamma-Ray Bursters". www.nsf.gov. Retrieved 2018-11-10.
12. "Physics & Astronomy News". www.utoledo.edu. Retrieved 2018-11-10.
13. "Research Assistant Professor - Williams, Reva-Kay". www.utoledo.edu. Retrieved 2018-11-10.
14. Dr. Reva Kay Williams, "From Supermassive Stars to Quasars: Production of Stardust...," AbSciCon2022, retrieved 2023-01-10