  Persi Diaconis was born in New York on January 31, 1945. Upon receiving a
Ph.D. from Harvard in 1974 he was appointed Assistant Professor at Stanford.
Following periods as Professor at Harvard (1987-1997) and Cornell (1996-1998),
he has been Professor in the Departments of Mathematics and Statistics at
Stanford since 1998. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a past
President of the IMS and has received honorary doctorates from Chicago and four
other universities. The following conversation took place at his office and at
Aldous's home in early 2012.
