William Parker was born in Savannah Georgia in 1965 and raised in rural Arkansas, graduating from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. He proceeded to graduate school at the University of Nebraska where he met and married Susanne in 1989. He earned a PhD in Chemistry in 1992, and then worked for more than 27 years at Duke University, studying transplantation biology, chronic immune dysfunction, and autism spectrum disorder. He is best known for discovering the function of the human appendix as a safe-house for beneficial bacteria, uncovering the beneficial effects of some intestinal worms for mental health, and being the first to compare immune function in wild and laboratory animals. In 2001, he transitioned from Duke to WPLab, a private, non-profit company focused on research and education, and he is currently a visiting scholar at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. William is an artisan blacksmith and enjoys cooking for Susanne and friends. He has worked with scouting programs for decades and, on some days, is reasonably good at tomahawk throwing.