John Ockendon is a leading applied mathematician who has been one of the pioneers in developing interaction between industry and university departments of mathematics. He has been behind such work in Oxford for over thirty years, and served as Research Director of the Oxford Centre for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. He has not only inspired the work of others, but also contributed personally and significantly to such diverse areas as locomotive traction, solidification, purification, injection moulding, glass fibre manufacture, dislocation theory and gravimetry. Free boundary problems have been a particular interest, and he has been central in the European Science Foundation’s work in this area.