Preface

It is a pleasure to provide the opportunity for the students, colleagues, and associates of Bob Williams to reflect, in their work, their respect and affection for him. Those who have worked with Bob remember, no doubt, the period in Oxford as one characterized by the challenge, and enlivened by the humor, with which he is associated.

The articles in this issue reflect the wide interest that Bob engendered in the use of inorganic elements by biological systems. He describes his own development of this interest in the first article; I am sure all of those who have worked with Bob will recognize its inimitable style! The rest of the articles are arranged ‘ ‘chrodogic~ly , ” i.e., in the order which represents their senior authors’ association with Bob. They reflect his wide interest in the subject for many years: they describe model systems whereby the important features of the inorganic complexes are delineated; they present interesting features of the isolated proteins, be they globins, cytochromes, blue copper proteins, ferredoxins, or zinc enzymes; they attempt,to rationalize the behavior of such systems in more complex environments; they investigate the role of metal ions in influencing cellular phenomena, such as neutrophil function or in the production of free radicals; they probe the structures of intact organisms, often with methods of great sophistication. In the development of all of these ideas and techniques, Bob could be said to have been stimulating, persuasive, forceful, argumentative-and usually right! What can certainly be accepted was that it was fun. I am sure that we wish him many more years of pleasure in this exciting discipline.

Allen Hill

Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry 28, 79 (1986) 19

0 1986 Elsevier Science Publishing Co., Inc., 52 Vanderbilt Ave., New York, NY 10017 0162-0134/86/$3.50