Claire Williams

Claire  Williams
B.S., Integrative Biology Honors, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2020
B.S., Geology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2020

Mailcode: C1160

Supervisor


Claire Williams is a PhD student at the Jackson School of Geosciences. She has a B.S. in Geology and in Integrative Biology and a minor in Chemistry from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She is a biologist turned paleobiologist interested in conservation paleobiology. Claire is currently studying coral reefs in the Caribbean working with the East Portland Special Fishery Conservation Area in Jamaica as well as on Pleistocene fossil reefs in the same area. She is also using ecological niche modeling in reefs from the Last Glacial Maximum to the future to try and determine how niche is changing over time and where suitable habitat will be for these reefs in the future. Besides research, she is interested in outreach, teaching, and reforestation.

ICRS Ruth Gates Fellowship Honorable Mention - International Coral Reef Society (2023)

Conservation Paleobiology Network Student Travel Grant - Conservation Paleobiology Network (2023)

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program - NSF (2022)

Whitney Endowed Presidential Scholarship - Jackson School of Geosciences (2022)

Society for the Study of Evolution Small Grants Program for Local and Regional Outreach Promoting the Understanding of Evolutionary Biology - Society for the Study of Evolution (2022)

Lerner-Gray Memorial Fund of the American Museum of Natural History - American Museum of Natural History (2022)

GSA Graduate Student Research Grant - Geological Society of America (2022)

Paleontological Society Student Research Grant - Paleontological Society (2022)

University of Illinois Geology Senior of the Year - University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Geology (2020)

Jackson School of Geosciences Fellowship - Jackson School of Geosciences (2020 - 2021)

Delcomyn International Study in Biology Award - University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Integrative Biology (2019)

Conference Travel Grant - University of Illinois Office of Undergraduate Research (2019)

Community Abundance And Environmental Monitoring To Support Coral Reef Management in East Portland Special Fishery Conservation Area, Jamaica, 2nd Conservation Paleobiology Symposium, Gainesville, Florida (2023)

Ecological niche modeling of prominent Caribbean coral species, XXI INQUA Congress 2023, Rome, Italy (2023)

Community Abundance Analysis to Support Coral Reef Management in East Portland Special Fishery Conservation Area, Jamaica, Geological Society of America, Denver, Colorado (2022)

Community Abundance Analysis to Support Coral Reef Management in East Portland Special Fishery Conservation Area, Jamaica, International Paleontological Congress, Khon Kaen, Thailand (2022)

Morphological Changes in Cyclocardia Granulata Following the Plio-Pleistocene Extinction in Virginia and North Carolina, Western Atlantic, Geological Society of America, Portland, Oregon (2021)