This year we lost one of the giants of our Resuscitation family, Ian Jacobs, the Chair of the Australian RC and ILCOR. He died suddenly on Sunday 19 October 2015. Our condolences go to Judith and the rest of his family, he will be greatly missed.

Ian Jacobs was the Winthrop Professor of Resuscitation and Prehospital Care at the University of Western Australia and Clinical Services Director for St John Ambulance in Western Australia.

Ian’s background is in nursing, although he also served 3 years as a paramedic. He gained his PhD in 1994 with a thesis on the contribution of ambulance services to the fall in mortality from ischaemic heart disease in Perth.

Ian developed particular expertise in clinical epidemiology, which made him a highly valued contributor to the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR) cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) science review process.

For almost two decades, Ian made substantial contributions to resuscitation science and education at national and international levels. Ian was Deputy Chairman of the Australian Resuscitation Council from 1994 to 2000, at which time he became Chairman - a position he held at the time of his death. He has been an ILCOR delegate since 2000 and was ILCOR Chairman at the time of his death. In this position, Ian demonstrated his exceptional qualities as a leader and was highly respected for his well-informed and balanced opinions and his knowledge of evidence-based medicine in general, and CPR in particular. These qualities were surpassed by his Australian sense of humour.

Since 2002, Ian has been the driving force behind the highly successful Australian Resuscitation Council Spark of Life Conferences. Ian had made major contributions to the international CPR science review process since 1998 and was an Editorial Board Member of Resuscitation throughout this time. Ian contributed not just to the review of resuscitation science but also published over 100 peer-reviewed papers himself. He led several key studies and, notably, was chief investigator for the PACA trial, the first placebo-controlled trial of adrenaline in out-of‐hospital cardiac arrest.

There are few people in the world as committed to resuscitation as Ian Jacobs and we are proud that he was an Honorary Member of the European Resuscitation Council. He will be greatly missed.