Hergen Spits' retirement symposium was held in the Zuiderkerk, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on 18 February 2019. As the moderator of this symposium, and co‐author of this article, Bianca Blom, made a telling analogy between the time‐magnitude relationship of Hergen Spits' research career and the adaptive immune response.

While Hergen had made enormous impact in his first wave of immune discoveries during 1980–2006, his second wave was even stronger. Indeed, Hergen was using his remarkable memory, generated during his groundbreaking studies of T‐ and NK cells, to make the paradigm‐shifting discovery of several subsets of innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) in humans. By using his wide knowledge and capacity for disruptive and truly innovative thinking, Hergen has cross‐fertilized different fields of immunology to make an impressing number of groundbreaking discoveries. That makes Hergen a legend.

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published in Alergy by European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology

Hergen Spits—A legend at the top of his career

Authors Jenny Mjösberg, Maria Grazia Roncarolo and Bianca Blom

First published: 09 March 2021 https://doi.org/10.1111/all.14788 Full Text