Willem Visser (Oosterbierum, 1959) studied Frisian MO-A and Frisian MO-B at the Noordelijke Leergangen. Subsequently, he studied General Linguistics at VU University Amsterdam (1988), where he also obtained his PhD in 1997.

Between 1978 and 1984, he was employed by the Fryske Akademy for lexicographical work. From 1985, he worked for about six years at the study of Frisian at the VU Amsterdam. In 1990, he rejoined the Fryske Akademy. In 2008, he transferred half-time to the Department of Frisian Language and Culture (since merged into the Minorities & Multilingualism programme) at the University of Groningen.

Visser's publications consist of dictionaries and loose articles, mostly in the field of the phonology of Frisian. In recent years, he has also published on the phonological side of (personal) names. Furthermore, he was co-founder and editor of the Tydskrift foar Fryske Taalkunde (1985-'95) and editor of It Beaken (until 2017). He is currently editor of Us Wurk.