Ten years with Peter I. Steponkus (our collaboration on plant cold hardiness and membrane cryostability)

Immediately after starting my graduate study at the Institute of Low Temperature Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan, in 1979, my supervisors began mentioning to me the name of a renowned cryobiologist who had published many important papers over a number of years. That name was Peter L. Steponkus. I met Pete for the first time in 1981 and following from that, I had fortunately had a long collaboration with Pete until his death, including my stay of more than 10 years in his laboratory at Cornell University. I learned from Pete a lot about the way to carry out scientific research. I would like to share my thoughts about Pete's contribution to the areas of plant and membrane cryobiology, for which he will long be remembered.