Magazine names Williams an 'Emerging Scholar'
A Mississippi State alumnus and faculty member is an Emerging Scholar of 2012, according to a national magazine for higher education.
Byron Williams, assistant professor of computer science, is one of 12 academics included in Diverse: Issues in Higher Education's 2012 Top "Under 40" Emerging Scholars list.
First published in 2002, the magazine's list of emerging scholars annually recognizes faculty members from a wide-variety of academic fields. Each honoree is selected based on his or her contribution to research, publishing and teaching.
Williams is in his second semester as a faculty member with MSU's Bagley College of Engineering where he specializes in software research including its architecture, maintenance and evolution. He earned bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in computer science from Mississippi State.
"I have known Byron since he was an undergraduate at State, and was delighted to be able to hire him as a faculty member in our department," said Donna Reese, head of the computer science and engineering department.
While working to complete his education, Williams served as a research and teaching assistant in software engineering. He also worked as principal consultant for Growth On Demand Enterprises, a Starkville-based company that develops software to support small businesses. Following his May 2009 graduation, he served as associate director and chief software engineer for the Center for Defense Integrated Data at Jackson State University.
Williams is a member of the Mississippi Department of Education science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) cluster taskforce, and the Association for Computing Machinery software engineering special Interest group. He also holds membership in the IEEE Computer Society, the National Society of Black Engineers and Upsilon Pi Epsilon.
For more information about Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, including a complete list of the 2012 Emerging Scholars, visit www.diverseeducation.com.
More information about the Bagley College of Engineering and the department of computer science and engineering can be found at www.bagley.msstate.edu.
Susan Lassetter | Bagley College of Engineering
