Albert J. Williams 3rd was born in Philadelphia on October 17, 1940. He graduated from Germantown Friends School in 1958, from Swarthmore College with an AB in physics in 1962, and from Johns Hopkins University with a Ph.D. in physics in 1969. Sandy, as he has been called since birth, married Isabelle Phillips in 1963 and they have a daughter, Helen Isabelle born in 1981. He came to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution as a Postdoctoral Investigator in 1969 and was appointed Assistant Scientist in 1970. He has been Associate Scientist, Senior Scientist, Department Chair of Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering, and since January 2003, Scientist Emeritus, all at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. His research has used novel measurement techniques that he developed to observe oceanic microstructure, turbulent mixing, and benthic boundary layer processes. He observed salt fingers in the Mediterranean outflow in 1972 and added an acoustic velocity sensor to his free drifting shadowgraph probe to reveal shear at density interfaces. He has extended his current measurement technique to a modular current sensor, MAVS that is low cost and can measure directional wave spectra as well as current and turbulence in the boundary layer. This sensor is marketed by a company, Nobska Development, Inc., that he founded in 1997. He enjoys travel, with his wife, and sailing and gardening. He is past chairman of the Current Measurement Technology Committee of the Oceanic Engineering Society and recipient of the Distinguished Technical Achievement Award for the year 2000.