I had the honour of leading BioSS as Acting Director / Director from 2003 until my retirement in 2018, and am very proud to have continuing involvement with BioSS as an Associate. During my scientific career I collaborated widely across institutions and disciplines, with a focus on ecology. My particular research expertise lies in the analysis and modelling of correlated data in both frequentist (Residual Maximum Likelihood) and Bayesian (Markov chain Monte Carlo) frameworks. I am currently a Committee Member of the Royal Statistical Society’s Highlands Local Group.