* As busy as Dr. Williams is, he writes autoreply emails that are something of a legend among his many correspondents. When I tried contacting him in late December 2017, I got this response:

Some of you have already started to send me sneaky emails in the hope of getting one of my draft autoreplies. I am not sure how to take that, but no chicken stories this time. But talking of emails, I just am wondering how long it will be before I get one of those invites to be a keynote speaker at an obscure meeting on a topic I know nothing about? Do you get lots of those?—I get around 12 a day. They usually start off telling me about the nice meeting location and then throw in the names of some important-sounding people, giving you the illusion that you are someone special being invited to give a keynote. Sometimes, I am tempted to say that I will come, but I know it would all end in tears, and in me parting with lots of money for nothing in return. That is their purpose after all, so I should not complain.