I was greatly saddened to read of the passing of Oliver Smithies (R. Kucherlapati Nature 542, 166; 2017). His scientific legacy will live on as an inspiration to students of all ages and levels, and their teachers (see, for example, http://smithies.lib.unc.edu).

In classes I have taught on major breakthroughs in biomedicine, Smithies' lectures were the most popular and inspirational (see, for example, the video 'Where do ideas come from?' at http://go.nature.com/2tr9e6z).

Students appreciate Smithies' points that one learns a lot from reading and that you need to do what you enjoy. And they are tickled by the story of how his inspiration for the discovery of starch gel electrophoresis came about — from watching his mother starch his father's shirts.