The wide field of Solid State Chemistry: A tribute to Prof Miguel Angel Alario-Franco on his 80th birthday

It is a great pleasure to prepare this special issue in honour of Professor Miguel Angel Alario-Franco on his 80th birthday. Miguel was born in Madrid in 1942, the son of a schoolteacher (and so were his two grandmothers, in the crossing of the XIX and XX centuries¡). He has always exhibited a keen intellect and has had a brilliant career. Miguel's undergraduate research work started by setting up a nitrogen adsorption measuring apparatus, which he later used for his DSc. Chemistry, Universidad Complutense Madrid-UCM, 1970. This probably exemplified for him the importance of establishing "advanced" techniques, which he later did in his own lab at the Universidad Complutense. This, following several post-doctoral stays in London (Brunel Univ./Prof. K.S.W.Sing), Wales (Univ. of Aberystwyth/Cambridge, Prof. Sir John M. Thomas, FRS), and Italy (ICTP Trieste: F. García-Moliner). For example, Miguel set up the first electron microscopy centre in Chemistry in Spain, which became one of the leading electron microscopy laboratories in Europe with scientists visiting the laboratory to perform experiments. With these tools, he developed one of his main research lines: the study of the microstructure and defects in extended solids [1], (including many new functional oxides [2] such as high Tc superconductors [3,4]) as well as ionic and electronic conductors, with special reference to non-stoichiometry and order-disorder phenomena [5]. Moreover, he later established the first high-pressure synthesis laboratory of its kind in Spain, still, the only one (¡), which allowed him to synthesize many more new compounds [6].