Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

This introductory paper contains personal perspectives about the importance of cyclotron resonance in forming our modern view of solids. The papers following this one will discuss the discovery, refinements, and some of the latest developments. Although I will touch on some of these subjects, I leave the details to the other authors and in the main focus on the conceptual impact of the work. I propose that it was experiments based on cyclotron resonance which established the quasiparticle concept.