[1] After studying at Wellesley College from 1962 to 1964, Williams earned a BA in history and literature from Harvard University in 1966.
[1][2] She joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty in 1982, in the Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies.
She was dean of students and undergraduate education at MIT from 1995 to 2000, after which she moved to the Program in Science, Technology, and Society.
[1] She served as president of the Society for the History of Technology, in 2005–2006.
[3] In 2013, she won the Leonardo da Vinci Medal of the Society for the History of Technology, its highest award.