Robin Williams (mathematician)
Robert Martin Williams, generally known as Robin Williams, was a New Zealand mathematician, academic administrator and public servant. He served as vice chancellor of the University of Otago from 1967 to 1972, and of the Australian National University from 1973 to 1975. Between 1975 and 1981, he was chair of the State Services Commission.
Early life and family
Born in Christchurch in 1919, Williams was educated at Christ's College and went on to study at Canterbury University College, graduating MA with first-class honours in mathematics and mathematical physics in 1941.On 15 July 1944, Williams married Mary Thorpe in Wellington, and the couple went on to have three children.
Career
Williams worked in the applied mathematics laboratory of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. During World War II, he worked at the University of California, Berkeley on the Manhattan Project in 1944–45 on the separation of uranium. After the war, he graduated from St. John's College, Cambridge with a Bachelor of Arts and PhD. He was a Harkness Fellow at Princeton in 1957.In 1963, Williams moved to work as an administrator at the State Services Commission. From 1967 to 1972, Williams was vice chancellor of the University of Otago, before accepting the same position at the Australian National University in Canberra, where he remained until 1975. That year, he was appointed chair of the State Services Commission, based in Wellington, serving in that role until 1981. In 1971 he succeeded Dr K. J. Sheen as Director-General of Education in New Zealand.