William D. Davies received the BA (1975) degree from Duke University, and the MA (1979) and PhD (1981) degrees in linguistics from University of California, San Diego.  He is professor and chair of Linguistics at the University of Iowa.  His primary areas of research are syntactic theory and Austronesian linguistics (particularly languages of Indonesia).  He has published three books, three edited volumes, and fifty-seven articles and book chapters, largely on the morphology and syntax of various languages, including Balinese, Basque, Choctaw, English, Fula, Javanese, Madurese, Sundanese, and Telugu.  He is an Associate Editor of Oceanic Linguistics and of Language, Journal of the Linguistic Society of America, and is a life member of the LSA.