Peter Waterman and his scientific legacy

Peter C. Waterman, a giant figure in the theory of electromagnetic, acoustic, and elastic wave scattering, passed away on 3 June, 2012. In view of his fundamental contributions, which to a large degree have guided the progress of these disciplines over the past five decades and affected profoundly the multifaceted research published in the Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer (JQSRT), we felt that it would be appropriate to solicit papers for a special issue of JQSRT commemorating Peter Waterman's scientific legacy. This initiative was endorsed by the JQSRT management and has resulted in a representative collection of high-quality papers which have undergone the same peer scrutiny as any paper submitted to JQSRT.