Although Govindjee’s lab had never worked on photophosphorylation ever, his interest was sparked, as Govindjee once explained, when he and Rajni had carried out experiments, in 1962, with George Hoch at Baltimore, on the two-light effect in ATP synthesis (a work that they did not publish). Thus, Govindjee encouraged Bedell NVP-BSK805 to find ways to measure ATP production in intact algae; for this, they used the luciferin-luciferase assay (Bedell and Govindjee 1973), but when Bedell left,

none of his other students seemed interested in this area… JJE-R.] Andrew A. Benson Scripts Institution of Oceanography La Jolla, CA Govindjee is the center of Photosynthesis Research in the United States and the scientists of the World. All communications involving photosynthesis research pass through Govindjee’s Filter. His efforts have been helpful, time after time. [I refer the reader to what Govindjee has Torin 1 datasheet written on Benson at his 93rd birthday: see Govindjee (2010); he insists at any opportunity he gets anywhere that the Calvin cycle must be called the Calvin-Benson cycle because Benson’s contributions were crucial to the discoveries that led to the

1961 Nobel Prize to Melvin Calvin; see Fig. 4… JJE-R.] Lars Olof Björn Emeritus Professor, MAPK inhibitor Department of Biology Lund University, Sweden In 1957–1958 I worked in California as Dan Arnon’s assistant. When I returned to Sweden, I told my Professor that I wished to continue with research on photosynthesis for my PhD. His reply was: “Now that Calvin has mapped the carbon assimilation pathway and Arnon has discovered photosynthetic phosphorylation in green plants there is nothing more to find out about photosynthesis. You should choose another topic.” And so I had to do, and for the following 55 years I worked in other areas. But how wrong my Professor was! The scientific findings of Govindjee alone are more than adequate proof of this. My interest in the marvelous process of photosynthesis was not swept away easily, even if it was not possible for me to engage in it fully, and I continued to follow the literature. In my advanced age, when retirement

has made it easier for me to choose my activities freely, Govindjee has helped me to fulfill some of my early ambitions. We have not met since a conference many years ago, but Govindjee has collaborated with me on several photosynthesis-related publications, and his immense knowledge O-methylated flavonoid has been an enormous asset in this activity. Our joint publications deal with intriguing questions: Why chlorophyll a (Björn et al. 2009a)? How did oxygenic photosynthesis evolve (Björn and Govindjee 2009)? Is there life in outer space (Björn et al. 2009b), and how did the Z-scheme evolve (Govindjee and Björn 2012)? Robert Blankenship Professor, Departments of Biology and Chemistry Washington University, St Louis, MO It has been my pleasure to be a close friend and collaborator of Govindjee’s for many years. He has made many important contributions to our understanding of photosynthesis.