Starting 1 January 2020, I am honoured to take over from Professor Nigel Peake as the Head of Department of DAMTP, as Nigel starts his new role as Head of the School of Physical Sciences. I look forward to working with all of you to build on the brilliant leadership of Nigel and the outstanding heritage fostered by the other five previous Heads of DAMTP: our founder George Batchelor; and his able successors Keith Moffatt, David Crighton, Tim Pedley and Peter Haynes. It is clear I have huge shoes to fill, yet I am looking forward to the challenge, as these are really exciting times to be in DAMTP. Together, I am certain we can maintain and enhance DAMTP’s deserved reputation as a world-leading place to work, to learn, to teach and to push back the boundaries of knowledge of applied mathematics and theoretical physics.