Dr. Keiffer Williams is a Visiting Assistant Professor serving a three-year term in the Biology department. He teaches introductory biology in addition to comparative and human anatomy courses. Prior to Berea, Dr. Williams completed his PhD in evolutionary biology at Clemson University. His dissertation research investigated how fish tooth shape has evolved in relation to what they eat, with a particular focus on reef-associated fishes. This research incorporates microCT data within a comparative statistical framework that allows him to address questions of organismal form at the macroevolutionary scale.
- Ph.D. - Clemson University, 2025. Dissertation: Ecomorphological Diversification of Tooth Complexity in the Oral Jaws of Marine Teleostean Fishes.
- M.S.- University of Minnesota, 2020. Thesis: The morphology of tooth replacement in Salariin Combtooth Blennies (Blenniiformes: Blenniidae: Salariini).
- B.S.- Butler University, 2016
Williams, K.L. and Price, S.A. 2025. Investigating Best Practices for Applying a Quantitative Tooth Complexity Metric to Fishes. Integrative and Comparative Biology, icaf047.
Hodge, J.R., Adams D.S., Williams K.L., Alencar L.R.V, Camper B., Larouche O., Thurman M.A., Zapfe K., and Price, S.A. 2025. Unraveling the Effects of Ecology and Evolutionary History in the Phenotypic Convergence of Fishes. Systematic Biology, syaf034.
Williams, K.L., Evans K.M., and Simons, A.M. 2021. Tooth replacement and attachment morphology in the Pacific Leaping Blenny, Alticus arnoldorum (Blenniiformes: Blenniidae: Salariini) with a discussion on tooth function. The Anatomical Record, 1–17.
Tolo, I.E., Padhi S.K, Williams K.L., Singh V., Halvorson S., Mor S. K., and Phelps, N.B.D. 2021. Susceptibility of Pimephales promelas and Carassius auratus to a strain of koi herpesvirus isolated from wild Cyprinus carpio in North America. Scientific Reports, 11, 1985.
Evans, K.M., Williams K.L., and Westneat, M.W. 2019. Do coral reefs promote morphological innovation? Exploration of habitat effects on labrid pharyngeal jaw evolution in the era of big data. Integrative and Comparative Biology, 59(3); pp. 696-704.