FABI founding director, Prof. Mike Wingfield has been uniquely honoured for his significant achievements and scientific contributions to the field of Mycology, on the occasion of his recent 70^th birthday, celebrated on 21 April this year while he was on sabbatical in the USA. The occasion is marked by Volume 13 of the journal Fungal Systematics and Evolution (FUSE), which is dedicated to Mike. Prof. Bernard Slippers, Prof. Cobus Visagie and Dr Neriman Yilmaz acted as handling editors for the special issue. The issue features various research articles specifically produced for this issue by friends of Mike from around the world. The issue includes 140 new species, 12 genera, including a new fungal species, Mjuua agapanthi, named in his honour by his PhD student and former Director of the Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute in the Netherlands, Prof. Pedro Crous.

This project was executed in great secrecy and a surprised and emotional Mike was handed a gift and informed of the publication of the special issue of the journal following the conclusion of PhD candidate GuoQing Li’s Prestige Seminar on 18 May. The gift features a word cloud of the genera of the 827 species names in Mycobank on which Mike has been an author.

In the preface to the special issue, he is described as “one of the most productive scientists of his generation, and possibly ever in the field of forest health, with over 1150 publications, accumulating more than 75000 citations. He has also produced 11 books or monographs. What is remarkable is the breadth of the topics that Mike deals with regularly in his publications, consultations and talks, from forest pathology and forest entomology to mycology, nematology, and many others. And yet, breadth has not given way to depth, as illustrated by the high impact journals and citation record linked to his outputs”.

They praise Mike for being an exemplary ambassador for science around the world. For example, he has co-authored papers with more than 200 fellow scientists from more than 60 different countries. One of the outstanding aspects of Mike’s career is his focus on mentorship and training. He has trained more than 110 PhD students and numerous M.Sc. students and postdoctoral Fellows. Amongst these students, leaders of major science organisations, business enterprises and academia now work in the United States of America, Netherlands, Britain, China, Indonesia, Oman, Australia, Cameroon, Uganda, Ethiopia, Chile, Colombia, Uruguay and South Africa, and more; indeed all around the world. He also served as the President of the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) from 2014-2019.