Laurie Williams is an Associate Professor and the Director of both the Center for Open Software Engineering and the Collaborative Software Development Laboratory at North Carolina State University (USA). Dr. Williams is the lead author of Pair Programming Illuminated and a coeditor ofExtreme Programming Perspectives. She has published more than 150 software engineering papers, articles, and books. Additionally, Dr. Williams has been invited to give more than 60 technical presentations worldwide. She has conducted several empirical studies on XP and its development practices, pair programming, and test-driven development. At NCSU, Dr. Williams leads the Software Engineering Realsearch group consisting primarily of world-class PhD students. The motto of Realseach is "Real Engineers -- Real Projects -- Real Impact."

Through this "real" research, Dr. Williams has and continues to work closely with a variety of companies, including IBM, Nortel, ABB, Microsoft, Tekelec, Sabre Airlines, and EMC. She received an undergraduate degree in industrial engineering from Lehigh University, an MBA from Duke University, and a PhD in computer science from the University of Utah. Prior to returning to academia to obtain her PhD, Dr. Williams worked in industry, for IBM, for nine years. She can be reached at williams at csc.ncsu.edu.