This special issue celebrates the research career of David Wilkie, widely recognized as one of the world's foremost actuaries.It follows a call for papers running from January to November 2024, which was timed to coincide with a Conference in Celebration of David Wilkie's 90th birthday ("Wilkiefest'') on 11th April 2024 at the Guildhall in York.Four papers presented at the conference are published in this special issue, along with three further papers in areas where the work of David Wilkie has had a substantial influence.David's interest in actuarial research continues to the present day and this editorial is followed by a personal contribution from David in which he describes some of the areas that have interested him and some of the problems