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When I met Lucas for the first time it was not at one of his famed SURED conferences in Monte Verità. I guess he may not even remember our first meeting: I was a young master student at LSE who came from a climbing trip in the summer and stayed at a friend’s place in Zurich. As I prioritized climbing over studying I was getting nervous for an exam and couldn’t get my head around a mathematical problem. So I went to ETH, knew nothing about anyone but went into the economics department to find someone who could answer my question. The only open door – it was the summer holiday after all – was Lucas’, so I knocked innocently. He was kind enough to take his time and answer my questions, probably wondering why a run-down climber was inquiring about all these easy economics problems. I passed the exam, so thank you Lucas!

There are not many who manage to organize conferences in such nice places, to get a good group of researchers together on a recurring basis, and who still know how to enjoy their life. There are not many who do extremely well both in research and in the interaction with policy makers, while still having enough energy to promote the research community through e.g. bringing everyone together via conferences or heading prestigious organizations such as the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists. So Lucas is one of these few and that is the reason why he is part of this series.