I have met Pietro nearly 40 years ago, when I was living in Italy. He was head of a mass spectrometry research laboratory in Padua, while I was working at a pharmaceutical company near Milan. Nevertheless, we have developed new research ideas together, and were among the first to study multiply charged peptide fragmentation. I often visited his laboratory to work together – he had a wide range of interests and was really a magician tuning, modifying, repairing instruments, and always eager to try out new ideas. This working relationship soon developed into a close friendship. Besides being a great scientist, he was also an excellent head of the laboratory. He inspired, guided, and helped his colleagues, and he always had a large entourage of students. He has created, and for many-many years, maintained an excellent center for mass spectrometry. What is just as important, there was always a warm atmosphere in the laboratory. It often seemed that people were in the laboratory just to be in a good company—but miraculously publishing excellent papers as a side-issue.

At that time, Italian students rarely spoke reasonable English, and were terrified to go to a conference. To help them gain experience, Pietro started to organize an international conference series. It was called the “Informal Meeting on Mass Spectrometry,” and was really an extended group meeting. Many of Pietro's friends were invited- both Italian and foreign. When I returned to Hungary, because many of my Italian friends planned to visit me in Hungary, I asked Pietro, if I could organize the IMMS in Hungary. He agreed, and subsequently we organized the Informal Meeting alternatively in Italy and in Hungary. When I started to build my own research group in Hungary, I always used Pietro as an example, and tried to imitate him: To create not only an excellent research group, but also a place where colleagues and students could work in a friendly atmosphere.

I feel privileged to be a friend of Pietro, and to contribute to this issue in his honor.

将近 40 年前，我住在意大利时认识了 Pietro。当我在米兰附近的一家制药公司工作时，他是帕多瓦质谱研究实验室的负责人。尽管如此，我们还是共同开发了新的研究思路，并且是最早研究多电荷肽裂解的人之一。我经常去他的实验室一起工作——他兴趣广泛，真是个调音、改装、修理仪器的魔术师，总是乐于尝试新的想法。这种工作关系很快发展成为亲密的友谊。除了是一位伟大的科学家，他还是一位出色的实验室负责人。他激励、指导和帮助他的同事，他总是有一大群学生随行。他创建并维持了一个优秀的质谱中心多年。同样重要的是，实验室里始终洋溢着温暖的气氛。人们在实验室里常常似乎只是为了加入一个好公司——但奇迹般地发表优秀论文作为副刊。

那时，意大利学生很少会说通情达理的英语，也不敢去参加会议。为了帮助他们获得经验，Pietro 开始组织国际会议系列。它被称为“质谱非正式会议”，实际上是一次扩展的小组会议。Pietro 的许多朋友都被邀请了——包括意大利人和外国朋友。当我回到匈牙利时，因为我的许多意大利朋友计划去匈牙利看望我，所以我问 Pietro，我是否可以在匈牙利组织 IMMS。他同意了，随后我们轮流在意大利和匈牙利组织了非正式会议。当我开始在匈牙利建立自己的研究组时，我总是以Pietro为例，并试图模仿他：不仅要创建一个优秀的研究组，

我很荣幸成为 Pietro 的朋友，并以他的名义为这个问题做出贡献。