It is an honour to write a few words for this volume to commemorate the life and work of Alexander Chudakov.

Chudakov was a ‘gentle giant’, a man of towering physical presence and towering intellect. His contributions to Cosmic Ray Physics were many; indeed, very, very few have done so much important work.

My own contact with him was through his publications, our meeting at many Conferences and through personal collaboration. His special skills which were brought to bear on all his work were superb experimental ability, almost impossibly high standards for acceptance of any interesting result as ‘real’ and a remarkable facility for explanation, by way of both the written and spoken word.

During the Soviet period he was always ready to ‘argue politics’ in an objective and, often not-too-serious way. Like the rest of us, however, he did not predict such a rapid fall of ‘the system’ and like us, too he mourned the previous system of science-funding, if nothing else.

We honour his passing.

Sir Arnold Wolfendale FRS, Former Royal Astronomer for Britain, 2001, Apr. 17