AbstractA personal review by the first graduate student of Professor R. Bruce Merrifield of the evolution of solid‐phase synthesis and its acceptance by various subsets of the chemistry community. Solid‐phase synthesis, as currently practised in the synthesis of biopolymers, combinatorial solid‐phase organic chemistry, synthesis of natural products, catalyst selection, chemical ligation and materials development, has proven a paradigm shift for the chemistry community. Copyright © 2003 European Peptide Society and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.