Herbert Aron David was born in Berlin, Germany, on December 19, 1925. He earned a Ph.D. (1953) in statistics from University College London. Since then he has been a Research Officer at CSIRO, Sydney (1953–1955), Senior Lecturer in Statistics at Melbourne University (1955–1957), Professor of Statistics at Virginia Polytechnic Institute (1957–1964), Professor of Biostatistics at the University of North Carolina (1964–1972), Director and Head, Statistical Laboratory and Department of Statistics at Iowa State University (1972–1984) and Distinguished Professor in Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State University (1980–1996). Currently he is Emeritus Distinguished Professor in Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State University. He is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Institute of Mathematical Statistics. He is an elected member of the International Statistical Institute. He also has served as Editor of Biometrics and as President of the Biometric Society. A list of all his publications until 1996 can be found in Statistical Theory and Applications. Papers in Honor of Herbert A. David (1996) 313–326.
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This interview was conducted on September 9, 2000 (Saturday) at the Department of Statistics, Iowa State University, Ames.