The Editorial Board members of the journal Human Population Genetics and Genomics (HPGG) would like to express their great sadness regarding the recent passing of their friend and colleague, António Amorim on April 11, 2024. António was a full Professor at the University of Porto, where he remained active throughout retirement, becoming Emeritus Professor in 2023. On March 21−22^nd, only a couple of weeks before his passing, he had co-organized the 20^th edition of the Portugaliae Genetica meetings, of which he had been a founding father. These meetings brought some of the best evolutionary biologists and geneticists to Porto and enhanced the visibility of Portuguese science.

António Amorim is remembered as a great and inspiring teacher. During his last lecture in June 2022, a highly attended public event, he demonstrated all the qualities that had made his success and fame in Portugal and beyond. He explained to biologists and medical doctors why they should learn population genetics and stressed the importance of neutrality and stochastic processes in the interpretation of genetic data. These ideas had been the basis for a popular science book he published more than 20 years ago [1].

Throughout his scientific life, he tried to make sense of genetic data from humans, and domesticated animal species, but also from other non-animal species including fungi and plants. He used his critical and sharp mind to make important contributions in the fields of population genetics, evolutionary biology, and forensics. He was the head of the Population Genetics and Evolution Group which joined the IPATIMUP (Instituto de Patologia e Imunologia Molecular da Universidade do Porto – Institute of Molecular Immunology and Pathology) in 1996. He became member of the IPATIMUP Executive Board between 1998 and 2010. More recently IPATIMUP joined i3S – Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde (Health Research and Innovation Institute) to create one of the largest Portuguese Research Institutes. António played a major role in Portugal influencing an entire generation of scientists in the life sciences and beyond, whom he always strongly supported.

Prof. Amorim’s contributions extend well beyond his research and teaching activities. For example, he was among the founders of the GABBA PhD program (Programa Graduado em Áreas da Biologia Básica e Aplicada), a graduate program in the areas of Applied and Fundamental Biology. He was Director of the Master in Applied Human Genetics and the Master in Forensic Genetics of the Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade do Porto (Faculty of Sciences of the Porto University). He also played important roles in creating and maintaining active communities of evolutionary biologists.

António Amorim joined HPGG on 7 Dec 2022 and was an enthusiastic supporter of the journal. He generously gave his time to support and nurture the journal by offering his ideas and advice at Editorial Board meetings, reviewing manuscripts, soliciting submissions, and contributing his own work to the journal [2]. We will miss him and his unique personality.