This paper pays tribute to Povl Ole Fanger, the late professor at the Technical University of Denmark. His scientific studies, focused on the main parameters affecting indoor environmental quality, have inspired (and still inspire) professional design engineers and academic researchers on human thermal comfort and indoor air quality over the last five decades. In addition, he strongly contributed to the creation of a "European School" that addressed engineering issues and was well integrated with the American School, which was characterised (at that time) by a physiological approach. Ten years after his death, this paper is a memorial of his research in the field of thermal comfort and some aspects of indoor air quality. Only the original papers of this Danish scientist will be discussed. The analysis of each single topic of his research and of its impact on past and present research would require more space than would be available in a review article. The authors are confident that the research described in this paper will serve as a beacon for researchers working on thermal comfort now and in the future. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.