Elevator pitch

It is a great honor and privilege for me to be named the new Editor-in-Chief of Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts (ESPI). I would like to take the opportunity to convey my excitement and to give you my elevator pitch, briefly making the case for why you should consider publishing your high-quality environmental chemistry studies in ESPI.

Before I do that I would like to add my thanks to that of Executive Editor Sarah Ruthven's (DOI: 10.1039/C5EM90050F) for the work of Frank Wania, the outgoing Chair of the Editorial Board. Under Frank's visionary leadership, ESPI was launched and this ushered in a new era of environmental science publishing at the Royal Society of Chemistry. Now, three years later, there are three sister journals in the Environmental Science family, with Environmental Science: Nano and Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology launching in 2014 and 2015, respectively. Frank will continue to help guide the journal from his new position on the Editorial Advisory Board. Thank you, Frank, for your commitment to and support of ESPI.

I would also like to thank former Associate Editor Stephen Mudge and former Editorial Board members Young-Shin Jun and Nora Savage for their service to ESPI. I look forward to working with Steve, Young-Shin, and Nora in the future as they have also joined the Editorial Advisory Board.

I am happy to announce the addition of three new Associate Editors of ESPI: Paul Tratnyek, Helen Hsu-Kim, and Matt MacLeod. Paul, Helen, and Matt join Ed Kolodziej and Liang-Hong Guo as Associate Editors. All five Associate Editors come to this role from distinguished careers as environmental chemistry researchers and scholars. I am truly excited that they have thrown their support behind ESPI, applying their expert knowledge of the field to the handling of papers for the journal.

Now for my elevator pitch: why should you consider publishing your work in ESPI? Let's start with what drives us in the first place. My own research in environmental chemistry has three motivations, which have developed alongside my career in science. My first motivation is almost certainly shared by all of the readers of ESPI and likely the reason why most of us became environmental scientists. It is a deep concern for all of the other species with whom we share our planet and who suffer the effects of human activities. As I grew as a scientist, I gained a new motivation that was rooted in pure scientific curiosity. I developed an obsessive fascination with gaining a chemical-level understanding of the complex environmental systems that surround us. More recently, as I became a father, I have become increasingly motivated to understand the links between the environment and human health. This triple motivation nicely summarizes my vision for ESPI, which is a home for high-quality environmental chemistry studies that illuminate environmental processes in natural environments and elucidate the impacts of human activities on ecosystems and human health.

To achieve this vision, we have worked hard to assemble a truly outstanding team of Associate Editors, who will leverage their vast experience and knowledge in handling your paper. I am very happy to be working with the Royal Society of Chemistry. Publishing with the Royal Society of Chemistry is a pleasant experience that I have always enjoyed. It is a not-for-profit society with an extremely strong publishing group, who handle manuscripts quickly and professionally. For ESPI, the average manuscript sees only 96 days between submission and publication. In addition, there are no word limits, no page charges, and no charge for color figures.

We work closely with our sister journals Environmental Science: Nano (ESN) and Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology (ESWRT) to publish excellent research across all areas of environmental chemistry and engineering. Each of our environmental science journals has a clear focus. ESN publishes studies on the environmental chemistry of engineered nanoparticles and ESWRT publishes studies on the science and engineering of water in the built environment. This three-pronged effort allows ESPI to focus on non-engineered systems, while still allowing for considerable latitude. Some examples of areas that we invite manuscripts include environmental processes affecting natural and anthropogenic chemicals in air (including indoor air), surface waters, groundwater, marine systems and soil, and impacts of chemical and microbiological contaminants on ecosystem and human health.

It is an exciting time at Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts and I invite you to join us as a reader, a reviewer, and an author, as we strive to publish the very best environmental chemistry research.

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