The passing of Professor Bengt Saltin on September 12, 2014 truly marks the end of an era. As editor of the Journal of Applied Physiology and one of Bengt’s many collaborators and colleagues, I wanted the Journal to celebrate his many seminal contributions by means of an Editorial. Professor Bente Kiens, who is both a colleague of Bengt’s and a Consulting Editor for the Journal, was asked to write it. Thanks to Bente and her colleagues for the impossible task of distilling an enormous body of work into about 1,000 words.

Peter Wagner, Editor