Alwyn Williams (geologist)

Sir Alwyn Williams FRS FRSE MRIA FGS

Principal of the University of Glasgow
In office 1976–1988
Preceded by	Sir Charles Wilson
Succeeded by	Sir William Kerr Fraser

Personal details
Born	8 June 1921 Aberdare, Wales
Died	4 April 2004(2004-04-04) (aged 82)
Spouse(s)	Joan Bevan
Residence	Pollokshields, Glasgow
Alma mater	University College of Wales
Profession	Geologist

Sir Alwyn Williams FRS FRSE MRIA FGS (8 June 1921 – 4 April 2004) was a Welsh geologist, who was Principal of the University of Glasgow from 1976 to 1988, and President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh from 1985 to 1988.

Williams was born in Aberdare, an industrial town in Rhondda Cynon Taf, South Wales, and attended Aberdare Boys' Grammar School. He was a keen sportsman in his youth, taking part in athletics and rugby, and had ambitions to join the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy, although these were thwarted by a bout of tuberculosis in 1939, which confined him for a time to a sanitorium. He instead won a scholarship to study at University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, where he achieved a First in geology in 1939, and a PhD, studying Welsh Ordovician rocks and describing new species of brachiopods. Whilst at Aberystwyth he served both as President of the institution's Students' Representative Council, and as National Vice-President of the National Union of Students. In 1948, he was appointed Lecturer in Geology at the University of Glasgow, but postponed this position to complete a two-year Harkness Fellowship at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., working under leading brachiopod expert G Arthur Cooper.