SPECIAL ISSUE EDITORIAL Thalamic branches of corticofugal axons from view of a critical eye and great mentor, Ray Guillery Filiz Onat, 1 Medine G€ ulc ßebi _ Idriz O  glu 1 and Safiye C ß avdar 2 1 Department of Medical Pharmacology, School of Medicine, Marmara University, Istanbul, Turkey 2 Department of Anatomy, School of Medicine, Koc ß University, Istanbul, Turkey Ray (Rainner) Guillery was a perfect scientist role model for the young generation. He was very generous in sharing his scientific knowledge and had an enormous sense of humour which showed his brilliant sharp intelligence. We had the privilege to work with him for 4 years (2006–2010) in Marmara University, Istanbul and kept in contact until he passed away in 2017. As neuroscientists, we were not the only ones to greatly benefit from his experience during his stay in the Departments of Anatomy and Pharmacology, he was also in contact with the other departments (Public Health, Histology, Internal Medicine, etc.) of the medical faculty. Ray came to Istanbul and joined us in 2006 as an emeritus pro- fessor in the Department of Anatomy. We felt very fortunate to meet him and study with him in our university because the major research field of the departments of basic sciences of medical faculty is neu- roscience and we were aware of the significance of Ray’s work in the field. He impressed us not only with his scientific background, extensive knowledge and approach to neuroscience but also with his plain and modest remarks on life. In an interview published in 2008 (Guillery, 2008), he replied to the question about the reason of mov- ing to Turkey and living in Istanbul with these sentences; One of the attractions of my move to Istanbul was the fact that Marmara University welcomed me and offered me an opportunity to continue with some academic activity even though I am well past retirement age, and unfundable for research. Furthermore, he referred to the effect of meeting colleagues in Marmara University on his decision to move to Istanbul in unpublished writings entitled, “Some thoughts about ageing in Istanbul” with these sentences. I had pub- lished papers on the thalamic reticular nucleus (some relying to a significant extent on John’s (John W. Crabtree) studies) and wrote to Safiye, introducing myself and suggesting that on my next visit to Istanbul I might visit her department. She sent back an enthusias- tic positive reply and the next time I was in Istanbul I arranged to visit the people in the Anatomy Department. They were very wel- coming, arranged for me to give an informal talk to a small group from the anatomy and pharmacology departments, and encouraged me to visit, to meet students and discuss problems of shared interest. That visit played an important part in helping me decide that when the time came to move from Madison, it might be a good idea to move to Istanbul. I could be close to family, and at the same time keep some academic interests alive in a way that would be far more difficult in the UK or the US. I found wonderful colleagues with an interest in the thalamus and the thalamic reticular nucleus. The foremost and very important support that Ray gave to the sci- entific and academic research activity of the medical faculty of Mar- mara University was in the preparation of our manuscripts. He made significant contributions to the editing of our manuscripts. Criticism of our papers with a prominent neuroscientist was a precious oppor- tunity and a very challenging activity for us. Ray also appreciated the attention of faculty members and enjoyed studying the manu- scripts with his Turkish colleagues. He wrote about writing and doing science in Istanbul in his unpublished writings in the follow- ing way: When I first moved here in the summer of 2006, I was given a very nice office with a view of Florence Nightingale museum in Selimiye Barracks. Selimiye Barracks housed a hospital that Florence Nightingale used, and it now houses a Florence Nightingale Museum that I have been meaning to visit for some time. I have placed the desk in my office so that I can see one of these huge historic Florence Nightingale towers when I sit at my desk. It gives me a sense of being in a different environment. I have spent a fair amount of time here working with colleagues on manu- scripts they are preparing for English language journals. I enjoy doing this. I have done it for colleagues in Hong Kong and Main- land China for several years, and when the European Journal of Neuroscience was started in the 1980s one of the aims was to help non-native speakers with the structure of their English. The pharma- cologists here have involved me in editing a number of manuscripts. I enjoy this greatly. They are (almost) all attractive young women who are all, or at least seem, keen to learn. Four of the students were at a recent epilepsy meeting in Antalya and were spoken of as the “Marmara Angels.” We (me and some of the angels) sit down in the pharmacology department with a projector that throws the draft text onto the wall, and then discuss the details. Usually three or four people are involved, and there is an active interchange. Turkish cof- fee usually accompanies each session, often with some pastries or chocolates as well. Ray gave many lectures and seminars in the medical faculty of Marmara to different aged academic career groups. He was willing and was happy being with Turkish medical students as well as young research assistants and professors from various departments of the faculty. He liked talking about and discussing science, about the doctrines of life or the origin and improvement of neuroscience in the world, within the historical halls of the old Ottoman building. The description of this atmosphere in his own words is as follows: The medical school (Tip Fakultesi) is in a wonderful old, late Otto- man building with impressive towers and a huge ceremonial entrance that is not used except, I suspect, for special occasions. It encloses a large courtyard, is separated from the road by a narrow garden area, and has significant grounds at the back facing the sea. Correspondence: Filiz Yilmaz Onat. Emails: fonat@marmara.edu.tr, fonatmarmara@gmail.com © 2018 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd European Journal of Neuroscience, Vol. 49, pp. 964–968, 2019 doi:10.1111/ejn.13977