The great divide: from viscometer to vasculature.

It is traditional at the Fåhraeus Award Ceremony for the previous winner to give the laudatio to the new one. This meant that my dear friend, Michel Boisseau, should have given it this year but, for personal reasons, he was unable to attend the meeting. This was sad but we all wished him well. However, it is an ill wind. . . and the result was that I was twice blessed in having a double laudatio, from my very old friends Dirk Seiffge and Herb Meiselman and I thank them both for their kindness. When I heard from Professor Jung that I had won the Medal I was, of course, extremely moved. I spent the bulk of my active research life involved in the field of haemorheology. It has given me immense pleasure over those years and allowed me to meet and make friends with some of the finest people that I know. It is an enormous honour, in the early stages of my retirement, to be recognised by my peer group and awarded the Medal so that I can join the previous winners (Table 1) all of whose work I greatly respect and many of whom I class as good friends. I am deeply grateful to all who have participated in honouring me this way. My only worry is that I am number thirteen; I just hope that that is not portentous! Now to the lecture; as I am recently retired from active research this is likely to be the last time that I shall write up a serious lecture given to my haemorheological friends. So I intend too indulge myself, to reminisce a little and to ride one or two of my haemorheological hobby-horses.