This issue of the IDA Journal of Desalination and Water Reuse marks an exciting new chapter (pun intended) in the history of this highly respected publication. With this issue, Dr Isabel C. Escobar assumes her duties as the Journal’s incoming Editor-in-Chief. She succeeds Dr Jim Birkett, who is stepping down after completion of the 2013 volume after four years of tireless and dedicated service to ensure the Journal’s success since its launch in 2009. She will work alongside Dr Birkett through the remainder of this year before assuming her full duties starting with the first issue of 2014.
We believe that Dr Escobar brings to the Journal an ideal combination of academic and scientific expertise and industrial knowledge. Based at the University of Toledo, Ohio, USA, she is Professor of Chemical and Environmental Engineering and Assistant Dean for Research Development and Outreach for the College of Engineering. She holds a PhD, M.S. and BSc. in Environmental Engineering from the University of Central Florida.
Well-known for her research on membrane separation, she has published more than 50 research papers and presented at over 100 national and international conferences. In addition, she has been lead principal investigator on 25 federally-funded grants and holds a patent for a breakthrough anti-biofouling feed spacer material.
You will also see some changes in the scope of the Journal as Dr Escobar brings her own perspective to its editorial content. For example, you can expect to see a combination of academic and industrial manuscripts as the Journal continues to cover advances and improvements in existing desalination technologies as well as innovations that hold great promise for the future. In addition, the Journal will turn greater attention to water reuse and the application of desalination technologies in such industries as oil & gas production, as well as advances in minimizing waste, recovering by-products, and reducing in energy consumption.
Dr Escobar is committed to rapid communications with authors, speeding the review process and accelerating publication of accepted manuscripts. With Maney, the Journal has established a new online submission system (www.edgmr.com/ida) and offers Advance Articles, where the typeset and corrected articles is published online, ahead of publication in an issue, within 25 days of acceptance. IDA members continue to receive the journal online through the IDA website and have full access to Advance Articles.
Another new and exciting development is the introduction of a new article type, Rapid Communications, providing an accelerated publication route for succinct papers on new and emerging technologies. Authors will benefit from a rapid but still rigorous peer review process with a target decision time of four weeks from submission.
With the change in our editorial staff, this issue also represents the beginning of a transition for Dr Birkett who has agreed to accept the honorary position as de facto historian for IDA. Those of you fortunate enough to know him will appreciate his incredible depth of knowledge about desalination. He has been invaluable in helping IDA memorialize our history as we celebrate our 40th Anniversary this year as the world’s leading association for the desalination and water reuse industry. He also edited Desalination at a Glance, IDA’s popular booklet designed to introduce desalination and desalination technologies to an ever-growing global audience, and he continues to write on the topic. In short, Dr Birkett is an invaluable member of our team, and we look forward to a long and productive relationship with him.
As you read this issue, please join me in welcoming Dr Escobar to her new position and thanking Dr Birkett for his continued work. And please feel free to share your comments and thoughts about the Journal – its current focus and suggestions about ways to make it an even more valued resource.
Patricia A. Burke ([email protected]) is the IDA Secretary General and an officer on IDA’s Board of Directors. She was one of IDA’s founding members and has been actively involved in the association and its predecessors since 1973.