A tribute to Milan Novak: preface

This thematic issue of The Canadian Mineralogist, comprising contributions to the 8th International Symposium of Granitic Pegmatites PEG2017 held in Kristiansand, Norway, in 2017, is dedicated to Milan Nova ´k, a distinguished researcher in the field of pegmatite mineralogy and petrology. Milan Nova ´k was born in Vy?skov, a small town close to Brno, Czechoslovakia, in October 1952 and started to collect minerals at the age of about 10. He took his Ms degree in Geology at the Masaryk University in Brno (1977) and obtained his PhD degree in Mineralogy and Petrology at Charles University in Prague (1988) defending the thesis ''Petrology of metamorphosed dolomitic rocks along the NE border of the Moldanubicum''