Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 2007, 46, 5251
5251
EDITORIAL Changes in the Editorial Team With considerable regret, I inform our readers that John L. Anderson has resigned as Associate Editor, effective July 31, 2007, because he has accepted the position of President of the Illinois Institute of Technology and feels its demands will preclude continuing on our editorial team. However, I am pleased to announce that Professor Benny D. Freeman has agreed to serve as an Associate Editor to fill this vacancy. The changes announced above are of special significance for me, as I will explain. In early 1986, I was asked to become the Editor of a reformatted journal to be called Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, formed by combining the three I&EC quarterlies: Fundamentals, Process Design & DeVelopment, and Product Research & DeVelopment. A major factor in my decision to accept this challenge was the long history of the various versions of Industrial & Engineering Chemistry published by the American Chemical Society and their significance to our profession. Indeed, we are heavily involved at this writing in preparing for the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the journal (see my editorial, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 2007, 46, 18591860, and our 100th Anniversary website: http://pubs.acs.org/ journals/iecred/promo/100th/). My first task in 1986 as Editor was to form an editorial team to handle the manuscripts previously published in the three I&EC quarterlies, and one objective was to continue the traditions of the quarterlies in the new combined format. I was able to convince Jerome A. Seiner, who was then Editor of the Product Research & DeVelopment quarterly, to agree to continue this function as part of our team. This left finding Associate Editors who would continue the functions of Robert L. Pigford (the first and only Editor of Fundamentals) and Hugh M. Hulbert (the first and only Editor of Process Design & DeVelopment), both of whom wished to retire from professional life. Two names came to mind immediately: John L. Anderson and J. D. (Bob) Seader, and, after some discussion, both agreed to join the team. We began handling manuscripts in mid-1986 as a leadup to the first issue under the new title, Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, which appeared in January 1987. As the number of manuscripts grew, it was necessary to add other Associate Editors, and, eventually, the simple mapping of certain Associate Editors with the content associated with the previous I&EC quarterlies began to vanish. Jerry Seiner continued on the team until his death in 1998, and Bob Seader continued until his retirement in 1999. Thus, John Anderson is the last member, other than myself, from the original Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research editorial team. John served as Associate Editor for ∼21 years. During this time, he presided over the peer review of nearly 3000 manuscripts with a remarkable sense of quality, fairness, and efficiency. I valued his advice on every aspect of the journal operation, and I will miss having his wise counsel.
John enjoyed his editorial role and told me on numerous occasions about the pleasures he derived from this professional service. When John first became Associate Editor, he was Head of the Department of Chemical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. In 1996, he called to tell me that he had been appointed Dean of the College of Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. I thought his next words would be that he could not continue his editorial role, but he assured me he wanted to stay on. In 2004, John called to tell me about his appointment as Provost and Vice President at Case Western Reserve University, and, again, I thought he was going to tell me he could no longer continue in his editorial role. However, throughout John’s professional ascent in university administration, he felt that being part of our editorial team was important to him and it certainly was to me. However, it is quite understandable that John concluded, with considerable regret, that this next position would be too demanding to do both. I am quite confident that John will be an excellent President for the Illinois Institute of Technology, and I wish him great success in this new adventure. After considerable thought and discussion with my colleagues, it became clear that Professor Benny D. Freeman would be an excellent person to fill the vacancy on our editorial team. Benny received his B.S. degree from North Carolina State University in 1983 and then a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1988, all in Chemical Engineering. After a NATO postdoctoral fellowship in France, he joined the faculty of North Carolina State University in 1989, where he progressed through the professorial ranks. In 2002, he joined the University of Texas at Austin, where he is currently the Kenneth A. Kobe Professor of Chemical Engineering. Benny brings a wealth of research and consulting experience to our team. He will handle many of the types of papers formerly assigned to John L. Anderson; however, in the coming months, we will reshape our assignments in accord with the evolving trends of the manuscripts currently being received. Benny is very well-organized which is a trait that I think is essential for an Associate Editor, and I look forward to working with him. Having another Associate Editor at the University of Texas at Austin will help us solve some staffing issues that have been troubling me for some time. We will hire a new assistant to work with Benny and David Allen. This is important, because our office in Austin has been functioning with the same size staff since 1996, while the number of manuscripts received has increased by slightly more than a factor of 2. The additional staff person in Austin will help us achieve a more rational work load among the staff and will alleviate, to some extent, the bottleneck that arises when one of our current staff is out of the office. While I am very sorry to lose John Anderson from our team, I am delighted about this new opportunity for him and for the journal that comes with the change.
Donald R. Paul, Editor Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research IE070884W 10.1021/ie070884w CCC: $37.00 © 2007 American Chemical Society Published on Web 07/25/2007
