She is the first person to successfully work out the Penrose process using Einstein's Theory of Relativity to extract energy from black holes.
[7][8] In January 1997, she worked as a visiting assistant professor of physics at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (North Carolina A&T),[8] and in 1998, she became an associate professor of astrophysics and director of the Center for Women and Science at Bennett College, remaining in that position until 2001.
[8] In 2000, Williams received a grant to work with Robert M. Hjellming in Aspen, Colorado and Socorro, New Mexico studying microquasars.
[10] In 2009, she was awarded a National Science Foundation grant to "investigate the jet structure and energy generation of quasars and other active galactic nuclei (AGNs), microquasars, and gamma-ray bursters, all of which are believed to be powered by rotating (Kerr) black holes".
[8] Williams gave a plenary speech at the astrobiology conference, AbSciCon, in the spring of 2022, organized by American Geophysical Union and NASA.