  Tadeusz Cali\'{n}ski was born in Pozna\'{n}, Poland in 1928. Despite the
absence of formal secondary eduction for Poles during the Second World War, he
entered the University of Pozna\'{n} in 1948, initially studying agronomy and
in later years mathematics. From 1953 to 1988 he taught statistics, biometry
and experimental design at the Agricultural University of Pozna\'{n}. During
this period he founded and developed the Pozna\'{n} inter-university school of
mathematical statistics and biometry, which has become one of the most
important schools of this type in Poland and beyond. He has supervised 24 Ph.D.
students, many of whom are currently professors at a variety of universities.
He is now Professor Emeritus. Among many awards, in 1995 Professor Cali\'{n}ski
received the Order of Polonia Restituta for his outstanding achievements in the
fields of Education and Science. In 2012 the Polish Statistical Society awarded
him The Jerzy Sp{\l}awa-Neyman Medal for his contribution to the development of
research in statistics in Poland. Professor Cali\'{n}ski in addition has
Doctoral Degrees honoris causa from the Agricultural University of Pozna\'{n}
and the Warsaw University of Life Sciences. His research interests include
mathematical statistics and biometry, with applications to agriculture, natural
sciences, biology and genetics. He has published over 140 articles in
scientific journals as well as, with Sanpei Kageyama, two important books on
the randomization approach to the design and analysis of experiments. He has
been extremely active and successful in initiating and contributing to fruitful
international research cooperation between Polish statisticians and
biometricians and their colleagues in various countries, particularly in the
Netherlands, France, Italy, Great Britain, Germany, Japan and Portugal. The
conversations in addition cover the history of biometry and experimental design
in Poland and the early influence of British statisticians.
