Rick Durrett is a Professor in the Mathematics Department at Duke University, having previously held faculty positions at UCLA and at Cornell. His PhD is from Stanford in 1976. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Science. His favorite research topics are stochastic spatial models that arise from questions in ecology, and the use of probability in problems that arise from genetics.