Neil was a fabulous scientist, a marvellous colleague, and a great friend. Scientifically, we were kindred spirits, and he was a major factor in my decision to move to Manchester. We shared a particular passion for cell free systems and SDS Page gels and he was a wise counsellor and a generous collaborator. I have so many treasured memories of times with Neil, including our trip to New Hampshire with Phil Woodman to attend a Gordon Conference, running the first EMBO Workshop held in Manchester and co-organising a Harden Conference on Protein folding with Neil and Sheena Radford. Our mutual interests meant that we always kept in touch after he moved to Glasgow, and I would regularly meet up with him at conferences and research symposia. My deepest sympathies to Susan and his family