On 17 February 2021, the dermatology community lost one of its most outstanding global citizens, Professor Hiroshi Shimizu. After serving as Professor and Chairman of the Department of Dermatology at Hokkaido University School of Medicine in Sapporo for 21 years, Hiroshi retired in 2020.

Hiroshi Shimizu had extensive EB expertise, giving much advice to the international EB community and evaluating research proposals and progress. He attended several DEBRA research conferences and mentored many students and postdocs leading their research, some in EB.

Our sympathies go out to his family and friends. Prof McGrath, well-known british EB researcher, wrote an obituary on the ESDR website.