Austin Beatty Williams (October 17, 1919 – October 27, 1999) was an American carcinologist, "the acknowledged expert on and leader in studies of the systematics of eastern American decapod crustaceans". ^[1]

Austin B. Williams was born on October 17, 1919, in Plattsburg, Missouri, the eldest of three children to Oliver Perry Williams and Lucy Sell. ^[1] He was educated at McPherson College and the University of Kansas, gaining his Ph.D. in 1951. ^[1] He then worked at the University of North Carolina Institute of Fisheries Research, the University of Illinois, before gaining a position in the systematics laboratory of the National Marine Fisheries Service, based at the Smithsonian Institution. ^[1] He was married and had one son and two grandchildren. He died of cancer at Falls Church, Virginia, on October 27, 1999. ^[1]

Williams' first scientific paper, published in 1952, described six new species of freshwater crayfish from the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma; ^[2] he continued to publish until his death in 1999, accruing 118 publications in that time. ^[1] His most important works ^[1] include monographs on the marine decapod crustaceans of the Carolinas, ^[3] on the decapods of the Atlantic coast of the United States, ^[4] and on the lobsters of the world's oceans. ^{[5] [6]} He won several awards, including the Crustacean Society's Excellence in Research Award ^[7] and the American Fisheries Society's Oscar Elton Sette Award. ^[1]

Austin B. Williams described or co-described 101 new taxa of decapod crustaceans, from the rank of subspecies to superfamily (obelisks mark fossil taxa): ^[1]

One genus and several species were named by other scientists in honor of Williams. They include: ^{[1] [8]}

• Plesionika williamsi Forest, 1974 – a species of deep-water shrimp
• Agostocaris williamsi Hart & Manning, 1986 – a species of shrimp from the Caribbean Sea
• Austinograea williamsi Hessler & Martin, 1989 – a crab from hydrothermal vents; both the genus and the specific epithet commemorate Williams

• "The National Systematics Laboratory of NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service". 23 February 2023.