Brain Basics: An Integrated Biological Approach to Understanding & Assessing Human Behavior

An integrated biological approach to understanding and assessing human behavior.

Dr. Robert A. Williams was born October 26, 1942 in San Francisco, CA and grew up in Piedmont, CA. Dr. Williams graduated from the University of California-Berkeley in 1964 with a degree in Zoology and was a member of Phi Kapa Tau fraternity. In 1967, Dr. Williams graduated from San Jose State University with a Masters Degree in Physical Science. While in college, he completed an ROTC program and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Army in 1967. Dr. Williams served 2 years in the Army from 1967 to 1969 as a missile scientist at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. He received his Medical Doctorate from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque in 1974. Dr. Williams served his internship in Neurology at the University of New Mexico. His computer background includes his Masters Thesis, "Automation and Its Software Applications to System Sensitivities," submitted at New Mexico State University-Las Cruces in 1969, and a medical school course, "Computers in Clinical Medicine" in 1972 at the Division of Research and Technology of the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.

Dr. Williams spent 3 years in emergency medicine, including 1 year in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. He completed his psychiatric residency in 1982 and his neurology residency in 1983 at the Chicago Medical School. Dr. Williams participated in 1 year of clinical research involving electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and was coauthor of two publications on ECT.

Dr. Williams was clinical director of the Affective Disorders Clinic at Maricopa Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona from 1983 to 1987. From 1987 to the present, Dr. Williams has been the director of the Biological Psychiatry Institute in Phoenix. He was medical director of the geropsychiatric inpatient unit at Phoenix Baptist Hospital from 1992 until the unit was closed in 1995. He currently provides an introductory course, "Introduction to Biological Psychiatry," to the family practice residents at Phoenix Baptist Hospital.

Dr. Williams is a Unitarian Universalist with hobbies that include art and photography. He spends his free time hiking and vacationing at his mountain residence in Pinos Altos, New Mexico.