Statistics and genetics between Italy and Britain in the 20th century: an interview with A. W. F. Edwards

The statistician and geneticist Anthony Edwards is interviewed about his career and the scientific connections between Italy and Britain in the past century. Last student of Fisher and witness and link of the relation between R. A. Fisher and L. L. Cavalli-Sforza, he started his career in Italy working on statistical methods for evolutionary trees, after studying the sex ratio at birth, a problem previously attacked by C. Gini at the beginning of the 20th century. Some emerging themes from the interview are briefly highlighted and related to subsequent developments in statistical genetics and the role of statistics.