1956年 　　　　　ハーバード大学博士課程修了（Ph.D.）
1955年－1957年　スタンフォード大学生物学教室　助教
1957年－1962年　スタンフォード大学生物学教室　講師
1962年－1966年　スタンフォード大学生物学教室　准教授
1966年－1967年　スタンフォード大学生物学教室　教授
1967年－1973年　ハーバード大学生物学教室　教授
1973年－1993年　カーネギー研究所植物学部門　部門長
1973年－1993年　スタンフォード大学生物学教室　教授
1993年－現在 　　カーネギー研究所植物学部門　名誉部門長
1993年－現在 　　スタンフォード大学生物学教室　名誉教授

1974年 　　　　　Elected to National Academy of Sciences
1975年 　　　　　Elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences
1984年－1985年　Alexander von Humboldt U.S. Senior Scientist Award
1986年 　　　　　Elected to Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina
1993年－1994年　Alexander von Humboldt U. S. Senior Scientist Award
1994年 　　　　　Stephen Hales Prize, American Society of Plant Physiologists
1995年 　　　　　Sterling Hendricks Medal, United States Department of Agriculture and American Chemical Society
2000年 　　　　　Finsen Medal, Association Internationale de Photobiologie
2006年 　　　　　Centennial Award, Botanical Society of America
2007年 　　　　　Gude Prize, American Society of Plant Biologists

Representative Publications:

1. Briggs, W. R., R. D. Tocher, and J. F. Wilson. 1957. Phototropic auxin redistribution in corn coleoptiles. Science 126:210-212.
2. Briggs, W. R. 1963. The phototropic responses of higher plants. Ann. Rev. Plant Physiol. 14:311-352.
3. Pratt, L. H. and W. R. Briggs. 1966. Photochemical and nonphotochemical reactions of phytochrome in vivo.Plant Physiol. 41: 467-474.
4. Briggs, W. R. and H. P. Chon. 1966. The physiological versus the spectrophotometric status of phytochrome in corn coleoptiles. Plant Physiol. 41:1159-1166.
5. Sargent, M. L. and W. R. Briggs.1967.The effects of light on a circadian rhythm of conidiation in Neurospora. Plant Physiol. 42:1504-1510.
6. Briggs, W. R. and D. C. Fork. 1969.Long-lived intermediates in phytochrome transformation I: In vitro studies. Plant Physiol. 44:1081-1088.
7. Gardner, G., C. S. Pike, H. V. Rice, and W. R. Briggs.1971. "Disaggregation" of phytochrome in vitro - a consequence of proteolysis. Plant Physiol. 48:686-693.
8. Briggs, W. R. and H. V. Rice.1972.Phytochrome:Chemical and physical properties and mechanism of action. Ann. Rev. Plant Physiol. 23:293-334.
9. Rice, H. V., W. R. Briggs, and C. J. Jackson-White. 1973. Purification of oat and rye phytochrome. Plant Physiol. 51:917-926.
10. Tobin, E. M. and W. R. Briggs.1973.Studies on the protein conformation of phytochrome. Photochem. Photobiol. 18:487-495.
11. Blatt, M. R., N. K. Wessells, and W. R. Briggs.1980.Actin and cortical fiber reticulation in the siphonaceous alga Vaucheria sessilis. Planta 147:363-375.
12. Mandoli, D. F. and W. R. Briggs.1981.Phytochrome control of two low-irradiance responses in etiolated oat seedlings. Plant Physiol. 67: 733-739.
13. Mandoli, D. F. and W. R. Briggs.1982. Optical properties of etiolated plant tissues. Proc.Nat. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 79:2902-2906.
14. Iino, M. and W. R. Briggs. 1984. Growth distribution during first positive phototropic curvature of maize coleoptiles. Plant Cell Environ. 7:97-104.
15. Kaufman, L. S., W. F. Thompson, and W. R. Briggs. 1984. Different red light requirements for phytochrome-induced accumulation of cab RNA and rbcS RNA. Science 226:1447-1449.
16. Mosinger, E., A. Batschauer, K. Apel, E. Schafer, and W. R. Briggs. 1988. Phytochrome regulation of greening in barley - effects on mRNA abundance and on transcriptional activity of isolated nuclei. Plant Physiol. 86:706-710.
17. Gallagher, S., T. W. Short, L. H. Pratt, P. M. Ray, and W. R. Briggs. 1988. Light-induced changes in two proteins found associated with plasma membrane fractions from pea stem sections. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 85:8003-8007.
18. Short, T. W. and W. R. Briggs. 1990. Characterization of a rapid, blue light- mediated change in detectable phosphorylation of a plasma membrane protein from etiolated pea (Pisum sativum L.) seedlings. Plant Physiol. 92:179-185.
19. Reymond, P., T. W. Short, W. R. Briggs, and K. L. Poff. 1992. Light-induced phosphorylation of a membrane protein plays an early role in signal transduction for phototropism in Arabidopsis thaliana. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 89: 4718-4721.
20. Liscum, E. and W. R. Briggs. 1995. Mutations in the NPH1 locus of Arabidopsis disrupt the perception of phototropic stimuli. Plant Cell 7: 473-485.
21. Huala, E., P. W. Oeller, E. Liscum, I.-S. Han, E. Larsen, and W. R. Briggs. 1997. Arabidopsis NPH1: A protein kinase with a putative redox-sensing domain. Science 278: 2120-2123.
22. Christie, J. M., P. Reymond, G. Powell, P. Bernasconi, A. A. Reibekas, E. Liscum, and W. R. Briggs. 1998. Arabidopsis NPH1: a flavoprotein with the properties of a photoreceptor for phototropism. Science 282: 1698-1701.
23. Briggs, W. R. and E. Huala. 1999. Blue-light photoreceptors in higher plants. Annu. Rev. Cell Dev. Biol. 15: 33-62.
24. Salomon, M., J. M. Christie, E. Knieb, U. Lempert, and W. R. Briggs. 2000. Photochemical and mutational analysis of the FMN-binding domains of the plant blue light photoreceptor phototropin. Biochemistry 39: 9401-9410.
25. Sakamoto, K. and W. R. Briggs. 2002. Cellular and subcellular localization of phototropin 1. Plant Cell 14:1723-1735.
26. Christie, J. M., T. E. Swartz, R. A. Bogomolni, and W. R. Briggs. 2002. Phototropin LOV domains exhibit distinct roles in regulating photoreceptor function. Plant J. 32: 205-219.
27. Corchnoy, S. B., T. E. Swartz, J. W. Lewis, I. Szundi, W. R. Briggs, and R. A. Bogomolni. 2003. Intramolecular proton transfers and structural changes during the photocycle of the LOV2 domain of phototropin 1. J. Biological Chemistry 278: 724-731.
28. Briggs, W. R. 2006. Flavin-based photoreceptors in plants, in: Flavins Photochemistry and Photobiology, E. Silva, A. M. Edwards (eds.), Comprehensive Series in Photochemical and Photobiological Sciences, Donat-Peter Hader, Giulio Jori (Series eds.) RSC, Cambridge UK. Pp. 183-216.
29. Swartz, T. E., T.-S. Tseng, M. A. Frederickson, G. Paris, D. J. Comerci, G. Rajeshekara, J.-G. Kim, M. B. Mudgett, G. Splitter, R. A. Ugalde, F. Goldbaum, W. R. Briggs, and R. A. Bogomolni. 2007. Blue light-activated histidine kinases: two-component sensors in bacteria. Science 317: 1090-1093.