In a certain way I am the odd one out in this collection as I am not a neuroscientist. I met Norman and Kate for the first time shortly after my arrival at Southampton University in fall 1990. They were the first ones to invite me to their home and as he had also recently been appointed to the chair of physiology & pharmacology , we had a lot of challenges (in those days called problems) in common with the university administration, which however did not deter us to do something, namely research. Norman and Kate were and are very hospitable and entertained a wide range of scientific friends in their house to whom I was priviliged to be introduced, namely John Nicholls, Kjeld Mollgard and William J. Krause. As the result of these discussions joint papers with Kjeld and Bill were published. I even had some input into neuroscience as a joint paper on my pet subject, carbohydrate histochemistry and glycobiology was published with Norman and Kate on the changes of glycosylation in the developing brain of marsupials.
My contact to Norman and Kate continued with their departure to Hobarth. He invited me to be external examiner in anatomy where I had the opportunity to stay in their marvellous beachside home and to meet even more interesting people like Peter Lisowski. When Norman and Kate moved to Melbourne, we still kept in touch and I applied for the chair pathology in Melbourne. Unfortunately that appointment did not come to fruition and so I remained in Hamburg.
I owe Norman a lot, not only his many enlightening and insightful comments on medicine, the somtimes unhelpful university administration (his lifelong battleground), and neuroscience. He really opened up my mind for neuroscience and hence that time I am looking for connections between neuroscience and cancer. The possible neuronal nature of cancer stem cells has become next to glycobiology one of my pet subjects. Without Normans help this would not have happened. What more can you expect from a scientific friend?