F.P. Agterberg obtained his PhD at Utrecht University in 1961. After a 1-year post-doctorate Fellowship of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation in Madison, he joined the Geological Survey of Canada in Ottawa where he headed the Geomathematics Section from 1969 to 1996.He has published over 350 scientific papers and 4 books including “Geomathematics? in 1974 which sold about 10,000 copies. During the past 7 years he has helped to estimate the ages of 6 GTS200 stage boundaries, and was a co-editor of the Encyclopedia of Mathematical Geosciences in which he also authored 24 chapters. From1968 he was associated with the University of Ottawa where he taught “statistics in geology? for 25 years. In total, he has supervised about 20 students in Canada and China. Other positions included directing the Quantitative Stratigraphy Project of the International Geological Correlation Program. He became Correspondent of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences in 1981 and was President of the International Association for Mathematical Geosciences (2004-2008),