In this interview, the UDC CITIC researcher, Ricardo Cao, reviews his 35-year career in the service of science. Mathematics and statistics have brought him great achievements in his career, with more than 200 research papers and the opportunity to have collaborated with numerous researchers from around the world. Of these, the most recent COVIDBENS stands out, with which it has fulfilled the double objective of public service at a critical social moment, on the one hand; and the scientific challenge, on the other, of having generated a highly efficient statistical model applicable to other health problems such as influenza.