William Ryan Dawson (24 August 1927 – 8 March 2020[1]) was an American zoologist and ornithologist and emeritus professor of zoology at the University of Michigan.
He is known in the field of ornithology for his comparative studies on desert and closely related non-desert birds in the south-western United States, Mexico and Australia.
He was later awarded Doctor of Science by the University of Western Australia in 1971.
[citation needed] He joined the faculty of zoology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he worked from 1953 to 1994, being appointed professor in 1962 and D.E.S.
He was the 1996 recipient of the Cooper Ornithological Society’s Loye and Alden Miller Research Award, which is given in recognition of lifetime achievement in ornithological research.