Desin Williams was born in Cwmsychpant and went to Llanwenog Primary School and Llandysul Grammar School.

He was a brilliant user of quantum mechanics, predicting the existence of a new atomic particle, the meson.

A brilliant physicist, E J Williams was invited to work with the giants of international physics of the day. He made himself and others try to visualise what was happening on an atomic scale.

He worked with Professor W L Bragg at the University of Manchester. His research there earned him his PhD. He then attended Cambridge University receiving a PhD in 1929. This was added to by a DSc Wales the following year.

How we understand atomic collisions - X-rays passing through gases or the impact of fast electrons on atoms - still owes a lot to E J Williams, even when now, 60 years later, new particles have been discovered which Williams knew nothing about.

He spent 1933 at the Niels Bohr Institute of Physics in Copenhagen. On his return, he became an Assistant Lecturer at the University of Manchester, followed by a period as Senior Lecturer at the University of Liverpool.

He was seconded to the Forces during the Second World War where his ability to analyse problems helped win the battle against the German U-boats which devastated British ships and cost many lives. His insight played an important part in ultimately eliminating this enemy action.

In 1938, he was offered the Chair of Physics at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, where he would remain until his death in 1945.