‘‘Watson, come here!’’

This famous quote marked a unique historical event in the development of telephony and an early experiment involving hearing. Although our own Watson postdates that work (considerably!), the life and work of Charles S. Watson are true reflections of good science and significant growth in our knowledge of human hearing. On behalf of those speaking at and attending this session in honor of Charles S. Watson, we ask this Watson to ‘‘come here!’’ (or, perhaps as a colleague suggested, to ‘‘come hear!’’). We ask that he do so to permit us to pay tribute to the many ways he has influenced the fields of psychoacoustics and speech communication, in general, and our careers, in particular. This introduction will provide a very brief overview of Chuck Watson, the person, as well as the scholar. By doing so, this overview will lay a foundation for understanding the impact of this man and his work. Subsequent speakers will build upon this foundation, with special focus on Chuck’s work in the area of the perception of complex sounds.