At the ARTERY 8 meeting in Ghent, it was a great personal pleasure for me to present the first Lifetime Achievement Award of ARTERY the Society to Professor Michel Safar. There could have been no better demonstration of the esteem that Michel is held in, than the spontaneous standing ovation that he was given by the delegates. I am therefore delighted that the current edition of Artery Research contains a short paper by Professor Safar outlining his personal experiences looking back on 35 years of research in the field of arterial stiffness. In addition, we are also publishing a short piece by some of Michel’s peers and investigators who have worked with him over those 35 years. I hope you will be able to appreciate his tremendous contribution and that his Lifetime Achievement Award was richly deserved.

Finally, I and the other members of the Editorial Board look forward very much to welcoming you to the beautiful city of Cambridge for ARTERY 9 in September.