Chatting with Des Nicholls

Des Nicholls is a remarkable statistical scientist, born and raised in country New South Wales. He has lived three parallel lives largely disconnected from each other and has contributed enormously to all of them. At the same time as being an outstanding academic at the Australian National University (research, senior academic administration, professional societies), his thirty-five-year career as consultant to Government and business was, arguably, more impactful than that of any other individual statistical consultant in Australia, and in his private life, his nearly four decades of service to the community through Rotary earned him the rare distinction of being inducted as a Paul Harris Fellow by Rotary International. These diverse contributions also led to Des being appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM), a Fellow of the American Statistical Association, and Elected Member of the International Statistical Institute, an Honorary Life member of the Statistical Society of Australia and being awarded its highest honour, the Pitman Medal. This conversation took place at Des’s home in during 1–3 May 2024.