Abstract  With the opening day of the 15th International Biochemistry of Exercise Congress in Stockholm, June 2012, it was appropriate that the scientific organising committee welcomed delegates to a symposium dedicated to the memory of Professor Eric Hultman, who spent the whole of his scientific career at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm. The symposium, entitled muscle metabolism and fatigue, highlighted the outstanding research contributions of Professor Hultman over a career spanning more than 4 decades, and also emphasized new research findings stemming from his original research contributions. This edition of the Journal of Physiology includes review articles from 2 of the speakers from the symposium, Niels Ørtenblad and Arend Bonen, which focus on muscle glycogen availability and fatigue (Niels Ørtenblad, Häkan Westerblad, and Joachim Nielsen. Muscle glycogen stores and fatigue), and the regulation of muscle fatty acid oxidation during exercise and training (Yuko Yoshida, Swati S. Jain, Jay T McFarlan, Laelie A. Snook, Adrian Chabowski, and Arend Bonen. Exercise‐ and training‐induced upregulation of skeletal muscle fatty acid oxidation are not solely dependent on mitochondrial machinery and biogenesis). This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved