The American College of Medical Informatics is an honorary society established to recognize those who have made sustained contributions to the field. Its highest award, for lifetime achievement and contributions to the discipline now known more inclusively as biomedical informatics, is the Morris F Collen Award. Dr. Collen’s own efforts as a pioneer in the field stand as the embodiment of creat...

Our scientific community has lost one of its prominent members: Prof. Michael R. Warburg (MRW) who passed away on the 9th of February, 2014 in Haifa. The organisers of the 9th Symposium on the Biology of Terrestrial Isopods, held in Poitiers, France, decided to dedicate the meeting and this special issue to his memory. Prof. Warburg was a highly regarded member of our community, a ‘spiritual sp...