An overview is given of the research performed by the authors at the Université Libre de Bruxelles and Vrije Universiteit Brussel, including the kinetics, stereochemistry and mechanism of S E 2 reactions at a saturated carbon atom, the synthesis of chiral organotin compounds and their configurational and optical stability, the fluxionality of trigonal bipyramidal metal atoms and the stereochemistry of S N 2 reactions at tetrahedrally substituted P, Si, Ge, Sn atoms, the cytotoxicity of many series of organotin compounds and the structure and reactivity of organotin salicylaldoximate clusters.