Ray Davis is a University Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Texas, Austin. He received his B.S. at the University of Kansas in 1960, his Ph.D. from Yale University in 1965, and was a Cancer Research Scientist at the Roswell Park Memorial Institute from 1964 to 1968. He is a well-decorated teacher, with awards including the Minnie Stevens Piper Professorship in 1992, the Jean Holloway Award in Chemistry Teaching in 1996, and (five times) the Outstanding Teacher Award given by campus freshman honor societies. He was an inaugural member of the University's Academy of Distinguished Teachers in 1995.