I guess everyone who is asked to give one of the Physiological Society's Prize Lectures feels honoured, but I feel particularly honoured to have been asked to give the Joan Mott Prize Lecture. I first met Joan Mott in 1980 at the Oxford meeting of the Physiological Society. I had just given a communication on baro- and chemoreceptor influences on the cardiovascular system and she came to introduce herself to me. I was a young lecturer at the time, and still felt a rather junior member of the Society. I had seen Joan Mott at many Physiological Society meetings. I had heard her give communications and had heard her entering into lively discussions after papers, and I knew she was a well respected scientist. I was therefore flattered that she should have come to talk to me about my work. After that we met at many Physiological Society meetings and she always made a point of asking how our research was going and we would talk of common interests. To me this is one of the most important aspects of Physiological Society meetings, that young and older members of the Society can rub shoulders with one a nother and discuss science openly with no barriers. Joan Mott had an influence on me that I have tried to remember as I have become a more senior member of the Society.