IUCr Journals introduces its three Commissioning Editors

The IUCr is pleased to announce the appointment of three Commissioning Editors for IUCr journals. "The appointment of Commissioning Editors – to work across all relevant IUCr journals in commissioning high-quality individual papers and special issues, and hopefully attract authors, reviewers and editors who have not worked with IUCr journals previously – is new to IUCr journals," said Editor-in-Chief, Andrew Allen. "The Commissioning Editor role is envisaged to be comparable to that of a Section Editor and will involve extensive interaction with the journal Section Editors and Co-editors."

The three Commissioning Editors and their subject areas are as follows: 

Biology: Roberto Steiner

Professor Steiner (Randall Centre for Cell and Molecular Biophysics, King’s College London, UK; roberto.steiner@kcl.ac.uk) has over 20 years of experience in the use of X-ray crystallography applied to understanding biological macromolecules and their mechanisms of action. He also has a strong passion for disseminating best practices in the field having been a tutor and contributor at many international schools and workshops. Roberto has published in a number of IUCr Journals and has served as a Guest Editor for a CCP4 issue of Acta Cryst. D. He is in the process of commissioning a special issue on serial crystallography and has selected a number of top articles that appear in a virtual special issue. While initially focusing on IUCrJ, Acta Cryst. D and Acta Cryst. F, Roberto intends to expand his work to the other journals with remits relevant to structural biology – especially Acta Cryst. A, J. Appl. Cryst. and J. Synchrotron Rad. 

Chemical sciences (chemistry and chemical crystallography): Elena Boldyreva

Professor Boldyreva (Boreskov Institute of Catalysis, Russian Academy of Sciences and Novosibirsk State University, Novosibirsk, Russia; eboldyreva@catalysis.ru) was already well known to IUCr journals having served as a Co-editor for Acta Cryst. B for nine years, and more recently as a Main Editor of Acta Cryst. E. She has published in IUCrJ, Acta Cryst. A, Acta Cryst. B, Acta Cryst. C, Acta Cryst. E and J. Appl. Cryst.; however, her publications mainly focus on chemistry and chemical crystallography. Elena is using her extensive experience in dealing with the chemical crystallography community at the international level to forge a stronger interaction between this community and IUCr journals, and has a number of ideas for special issues, including Chemical crystallography and new materials, Chemical crystallography and drug research, Chemical crystallography and solid-state transformations, and virtual Editors' selection issues.

Materials, methods and instrumentation: Thomas Proffen

Dr Proffen (Neutron Sciences Directorate, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA; tproffen@ornl.gov) has served as an active Co-editor of J. Appl. Cryst. since 2014. He has a distinguished publication record with many citations across much of the applied crystallography field, and has published in Acta Cryst. A, Acta Cryst. B, J. Appl. Cryst. and J. Synchrotron Rad. His main emphasis in publications is centred on materials, neutron scattering and applied crystallography, including advanced methods, software and instrumentation development. Thomas is conversant with the user communities of large-scale national and international facilities, and conducts various mentoring and outreach activities in support of young researchers, together with gender and ethnic diversity. He is developing plans for a special issue on machine learning in crystallography.

This inaugural team spans a subject, geographical and gender distribution that should serve well in developing the Commissioning Editor role for the IUCr journals. Once a successful operation is established, the appointment of a further Commissioning Editor from the developing world will be considered.