Pieter Muysken, born in Oruro (Bolivia) in 1950, received his doctorate from the University of Amsterdam in 1977 with a dissertation on the syntax of Ecuadorian Quechua. Since 2001 he is Professor of Linguistics at the Radboud University Nijmegen, where he has been holding a KNAW Academy chair since 2007. His contributions in the field of linguistics especially concern language contact, bilingualism, Creole studies, and the documentation of endangered languages. The Spinoza Prize (1998) is one of the many prestigious awards Muysken received for his overall research.