Interlaboratory comparisons of chemical measurements: Quo Vadis?

In numerous articles and editorials, many of which were published in ACQUAL, Paul De Bièvre laid out challenges time and again about how the application of statistical methods can help improve our understanding of chemical measurements. Paul’s insights and incisive criticism were as illuminating and as provocative as in all other areas that he looked into—from counting to consensus building, from the validity of common statistical assumptions to the impact of model uncertainty. This memorial contribution briefly revisits some of these concerns illustrated by examples from interlaboratory comparisons and proposes an optimistic outlook for how the statistical arts practised in close collaboration between chemist and statistician will continue to add value to the chemical sciences.