Willie E. May is an American chemist who was the 15th director of the United States' National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the U.S.

He was involved in assessing baseline hydrocarbon levels in Prince William Sound prior to the building of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System.

He has developed protocols for the collection of environmental samples suitable for trace organic analysis, including techniques in liquid chromatography.

[1] Willie May was born in Birmingham, Alabama and received a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from Knoxville College in 1968.

[2][3][4] May began working at NIST in 1971, when it was known as the National Bureau of Standards, and spent the next four decades at the agency.