Professor John White was a key figure in the international scientific community for more than five decades. Over the course of a long and distinguished career, through a combination of advances in experimentation and choice of paradigm examples, his work demonstrated how neutron scattering data could be analysed to provide precise details of molecular structure and dynamics for a wide variety of chemical systems. John sadly passed away in August 2023. To celebrate and commemorate his lasting contributions, a symposium is being organised in his honour. We welcome contributions from John’s colleagues, collaborators and enthusiasts in what will be a celebration of a life well lived.