Dr. Edman is distinguished for his contributions to protein structure and especially for his procedure for the determination of amino acid sequence in peptides and proteins, a technique that is of major biological importance and in world-wide use. His early work was concerned with the isolation and analysis of some biologically active peptides and led to an interest in their amino acid sequence. In 1949, he described a reaction for the sequential cleavage and identification of N-terminal amino acids from polypeptides. In the intervening period he has studied the reaction in detail. This has enabled the development of an automatic protein sequenator which has been successfully applied to myoglobin and to peptides from fibrinogen. Dr. Edman' s work is characterised by its ingenuity, elegance and his meticulous attention to detail and is complemented by an appreciation of engineering principles.