Ernest Michael and theory of continuous selections

This is the introductory paper to the special issue of Topology and Its Applications entirely dedicated to the theory of continuous selections of multivalued mappings. Since the pioneering work of Ernest Michael from 1956 can rightfully be considered as the year of birth of this theory, this issue of the journal is in fact dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the theory of continuous selections. At the same time the papers of this issue are all dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the founder of this theory - Ernest Michael.