It was a wonderful period for research in photosynthesis, and Govindjee had inherited the “mantle of Robert Emerson” in the study of photosynthetic efficiency (right down to maintaining some of Emerson’s original equipment for measuring quantum efficiency). Some of the questions being asked by the larger community at that time may seem curious or even impossible to today’s generation of researchers—such as, are there 1, 2 or 3 photosystems? I benefited greatly 3 MA by my interaction with Govindjee, his students, and our multiple other colleagues who worked on questions of photosynthesis from field studies to quantum mechanics. And, this lively environment made it easy to attract coworkers from

around the world to come and collaborate on projects of mutual interest. It was in this intense but delightful environment that my team identified mechanisms for herbicide resistance in the Photosytem II complex, which lead me to learning

tools of biotechnology for genetic manipulation of proteins. But, this led me away from photosynthesis and into engineering of plants to create pharmaceutically active proteins, which I’ve done for the last 25 years. However, this time for celebration of Govindjee’s career and life causes me to recall those wonderful years in Urbana in the 1970s, and work on chloroplasts and solar energy conversion. Happy Birthday, Govindjee! Eva-Mari Aro Professor of Plant Biology University

see more of Turku, Finland Dear Gov—you are unique! There are not many scientists who can compete with you: (i) in being such a big guy in photosynthesis research; (ii) in being so supportive, helpful and friendly with your colleagues irrespective of their reputation in science; (iii) in supporting young generation scientists; (iv) in having a never-ending enthusiasm for science and bringing that attitude to Turku; (v) in making me edit a book (ABT-737 solubility dmso thanks for that), and finally (vi) in being such a good friend to me. [Eva-Mari Aro and Govindjee have published a research paper on mutagenesis of the D–E loop of the D1 protein (Mulo et al. 1997) and a conference PAK6 report where they discovered that the thermoluminescence bands due to recombination of Q A − with the S-states were at the same temperature as that due to bands corresponding to recombination involving Q B − in certain mutants of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803, a rather unusual situation (Keränen et al. 1998); see Fig. 5… JJE-R.] James Barber Ernst Chain Professor of Biochemistry Imperial College London Dear Govindjee I first became aware of you when I was a post-doc in Lou Duysens’ laboratory in Leiden in 1967. Since then our paths have crossed many times. On all occasions you were an inspiration. I admired you not only as an outstanding and committed scientist but also for being so positive and enthusiastic.