Professor Laurence G Williams was awarded an OBE for services to nuclear safety and radioactive waste management in the 2018 Queen’s Birthday Honours List. He was awarded the PBM (Pingat Bakti Masyarakat) in 2025 for services to Singapore.

Laurence has a long history of engagement with research to underpin the safety of nuclear installations both in the UK and overseas. He also has interests in nuclear security, nuclear safeguards, governmental organisation for the regulation of nuclear industries; international nuclear safety standards harmonization; nuclear licensing; nuclear emergency planning, the management of radioactive waste; the tolerability of risk, the societal impact of the use of nuclear energy and the safety and regulation of fusion power plants.

Laurence was Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Nuclear Installations; Chief Engineer of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority; Chair of the Defence Nuclear Safety Committee where he was responsible for advising the Secretary of State for Defence on the safety of the Defence Nuclear Programme; Chair of the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management where he was responsible for advising the UK Government and the Governments of the Devolved Administrations on radioactive waste management; Chair of the Nuclear Institute’s Nuclear Future Editorial Committee and the Chair of Tokamak Energy’s Regulatory and Safety Committee.

Laurence is currently the Ser Cymru Professor of Nuclear Policy and Regulation,  Emeritus Professor of Nuclear Safety and Regulation at the University of Lancashire; a Visiting Professor in the Centre for Nuclear Engineering at the Imperial College London;  an Honorary Advisor to the School of Engineering at Manchester University, Chair of the Singapore Nuclear Safety Advisory Panel, Vice President  of the Higher Scientific Council of the European Nuclear Society; and a Senior Visiting Fellow at the National Nuclear Laboratory.

For over four decades, Laurence has contributed to improving nuclear safety in the United Kingdom and internationally. As Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Nuclear Installations, he was responsible for licensing all civil and some defence related nuclear installations in the Great Britain. He is regarded as one of the world’s leading experts in nuclear safety regulation.

Laurence was a member of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s International Advisory Group for the Chernobyl New Safe Confinement project since its inception in 1998. He continued to provide advice on nuclear safety and radioactive waste management to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development up until 2018 when the Chernobyl new safe confinement project was completed

He has extensive knowledge of working with Government and the Senior Civil Service on nuclear safety, security and radioactive waste matters. He was a member of the UK’s Nuclear Innovation and Research Advisory Board (NIRAB)