Richard Gill has occupied the Chair of Mathematical Statistics at the University of Leiden since 2006, having held other posts in the Netherlands since 1974. His research interests are in law, statistics in law, biostatistics, genetics, survival analysis, semiparametric models, causality, machine learning, statistical image analysis and quantum statistical information. He is fascinated by foundational aspects of statistics, probability and quantum physics, and by the societal role of science in general and of statistics in particular.

In his work on quantum information he applies ideas and methodology from probability and statistics to experimental and technological problems in quantum science. In the new biosciences he sees fantastic challenges for probability and statistics, and he is especially interested in statistical problems of forensic DNA profiling.

He is an elected member of the Dutch Royal Academy of Sciences, he is currently president of the Dutch Society for Statistics and Operations Research, and he holds the Distinguished Lorentz Fellowship for 2010-2011 for his contributions to forensic statistics. During 2007-2010 he was deeply involved in the movement to have the case of Lucia de Berk reopened, fighting a miscarriage of justice that was righted in April, 2010, as widely reported in the international press.