I first came across Neil's name as an undergraduate in my home country, Greece, when I took a two-semester course in Solid State Physics and my Professor (who later became my Diploma advisor) recommended Ashcroft and Mermin for his class. I was deeply impressed by the depth and clarity of the book and the perspective of getting to know also the person behind it became a fascinating idea for me. I was delighted to be admitted to the Physics Graduate Program at Cornell in 1988 and I approached Neil for a summer research project in 1990. He introduced me to a topic not usually treated in standard Physics Curricula, namely the area of classical fluids and the freezing transition treated by means of classical density functional theory, a field in which Neil also has made fundamental and long-lasting contributions. Having him as my Ph.D. advisor for the following three years (1990-1993) was a wonderful experience: I have profited from Neil's tremendous knowledge in the broad area of Statistical Mechanics and Condensed Matter Physics in our weekly meetings but at the same time Neil knew to keep a healthy distance from the details of our common research. He never tried to micromanage my work. Instead, he granted me a great deal of autonomy and he let me develop my own ideas and self-reliance -- the best a teacher can do for his students. Neil has been an inspirational figure for me in all respects: as a physicist, as a citizen (of science) and as a human being. His influence has shaped my own academic path and my subsequent focus on soft matter physics in innumerable ways. I will treasure his memory and I will be happy if I manage to give to my own Ph.D. students even a fraction of what Neil gave to me during my years at Cornell.

Christos Likos
Professor of Physics, University of Vienna
Vienna, April 27, 2021