Editorial: In celebration of the 75th birthday of Professor Julius Rebek, Jr.

This special issue is dedicated to Julius Rebek, Jr., Director of the Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, Professor of Chemistry at the Scripps Research Institute, and current Visiting Professor at Shanghai University. For almost half a century, MSc students, PhD students and postdocs from all around the world have enjoyed performing chemical research in his laboratories at the University of California at Los Angeles (1970–1976), the University of Pittsburgh (1976–1989), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1989–1996) and The Scripps Research Institute (since 1996). Over 300 hundred students and associates have worked under the guidance of Professor Rebek. In this special issue, many of these co-workers and several of his colleagues celebrate his 75^th birthday by presenting research from their laboratories. The wide range of research covered by these articles, which includes synthetic, supramolecular, medicinal and even materials chemistry, illustrates the wide impact of Julius Rebek Jr. on the development of organic chemistry during the last half century. Likewise, the multinational composition of authors nicely mirrors the atmosphere in his laboratories where lasting friendships have been established across the whole world.