Working in France where the community of researchers in fuzzy logic was very small in the 80s, I remember how surprized I was when I met Enric Trillas for the first time in 1982, at the occasion of the Second World Conference on Mathematics at the Service ofMan in Las Palmas. I saw him as a leader and a reference for many people. I had heard of his reputation from Lloren Valverde, for whom he was the advisor at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, and whom I met in France during his visit to Professor Joseph Kampé de Fériet in Lille. I then discovered the rest of his group, Francesc Esteva, Claudi Alsina, Ton Sales, Teresa Riera, Ramon Lopez de Mantaras, Eduard Bonet and others, showing a combination of scientific enthousiasm, high level expertise and friendship. My meeting with them was the first one of a long series which gave rise to collaborations at various levels.