Sir David Cox died on January 18 at the age of 97. News of his passing was met with an outpouring of tributes. To the Royal Statistical Society, he was “one of the most important statisticians of the past century.” At Nuffield College, Oxford, he was hailed as “a pioneering statistician.” The MRC Biostatistics Unit at Cambridge called him “a giant in the field,” while at St John’s College, Cambridge, he was celebrated as “an inspiring scholar.” In a special 12-page collection of articles in this issue, friends and colleagues remember Sir David in their own way, while also reflecting on his immense contributions to statistics.

Also in the April issue, we mark two years of the COVID-19 pandemic with a selection of pieces on COVID data, lockdowns, modeling, and student learning.

Plus:

• When the COVID-19 pandemic began, statisticians, epidemiologists, and journalists around the world accepted the challenge of trying to explain to the public exactly what was happening and drawing insights from the mass of data being produced. Timandra Harkness interviews three individuals about their experiences of becoming COVID communicators.
• Sharing data and code as part of a research publication is crucial for ensuring the computational reproducibility of scientific work. But sharing should be done at the article submission stage, not after publication as it is now, say Rachel Heyard and Leonhard Held.
• Monika Frątczak shares findings from her PhD research exploring emotional responses to data visualizations and engagement with climate-related issues.

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