Bill joined Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1976, retiring after 34 years. He started in basic and applied research and then moved into line, project, and institutional management, including systems-based improvement in environment, safety, and health, quality, strategic planning, community relations, educational outreach, economic development, and Laboratory-wide organizational performance.
Bill twice took leaves from the Laboratory, once to teach at Williams College and once to serve as Vice President for Inorganic Sciences at BioDesign, a Caltech spinoff company. developing visualization and analysis software for protein engineering and interactive drug design.
Bill serves as chair on the board of Los Alamos National Laboratory Foundation, which he helped found. He is the immediate past board chair of the Los Alamos Commerce and Development Corporation and serves on the board of Rocky Mountain Performance Excellence. Bill also serves on the Advisory Council for Cognia New Mexico and chairs New Mexico Excellence in Learning, a statewide education effort to promote systems-based continuous improvement.
Bill received an AB in chemistry and mathematics from Williams College and a PhD in chemistry from Caltech. In 1984, he was recognized by Science Digest as one of America’s 100 Brightest Scientists under 40. In 2024 Bill received the Community Relations Medal from LANL and was named a Los Alamos Living Treasure. In 2026, he was named the Garrett Thornburg Philanthropist of the Year.