July 1, 2008, Melville, NY—American Institute of Physics (AIP) announces the appointment of Marsha I. Lester to the post of Editor of
The Journal of Chemical Physics. Lester succeeds interim editor Branka M. Ladanyi, at the helm of the journal since the retirement of Donald H. Levy, who so ably filled the post from 1998 to 2007.
Lester received her Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1981. She has risen through the academic ranks at the University of Pennsylvania, where she is currently the Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Professor in the Natural Sciences and Chair of the Department of Chemistry. Lester has received many honors and awards, including her recent election to Fellowship in the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the Bourke Lectureship of the Faraday Division of the Royal Society of Chemistry, a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Physical Society, an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, and the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher–Scholar Award.
Lester has consistently devoted a substantial amount of her time to scientific service activities. She has served on the National Research Council's Commission on Physical Sciences, Mathematics, and Applications as well as their Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology. She has been engaged in activities of the American Chemical Society and the American Physical Society, highlighted by serving as Chair of the Division of Laser Science of the latter organization. She has participated in numerous advisory and review committees of the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy, currently serving as Chair of the DOE Council for Chemical and Biochemical Sciences. Lastly, she has been a member of the editorial advisory boards of several journals, including
The Journal of Chemical Physics.
Lester's research group at the University of Pennsylvania has developed innovative methods for generating open-shell complexes between a free radical and a reactive partner, such as OH–H2 and OH–CO, now known as 'entrance channel complexes,' and for stabilizing intermediates, e.g., HOONO and HOOO, of key chemical reactions. Her group has employed novel spectroscopic methods, including pump-probe and double resonance techniques, to rigorously characterize important, yet previously uncharted, regions of chemical reaction pathways. Her pioneering experimental studies and closely coupled theoretical computations focus on reactions of the hydroxyl radical, the key initiator of oxidation chemistry in atmospheric and combustion environments. Lester has published extensively in
The Journal of Chemical Physics, as well as a broad range of scholarly journals in the physical sciences.
In response to her appointment, Lester expressed her excitement in assuming leadership of this preeminent journal, which has played such an important role in the field of chemical physics. "I see a wonderful opportunity to expand the reach of the Journal in interdisciplinary and emerging fields, in part, by adding new Associate Editors that complement existing strengths and engaging the community in the process of reinvigorating the journal. It will be exciting to interact with colleagues worldwide who are participating in the expansive and ever-changing field of Chemical Physics. I also look forward to working with the American Institute of Physics, which is deeply committed to the success of this Journal."
The American Institute of Physics (AIP) is a non-profit corporation chartered in 1931 for the purpose of advancement and diffusion of the knowledge of physics and its application to human welfare. An umbrella organization for 10 Member Societies, AIP represents over 134,000 scientists, engineers and educators and is one of the world's largest publishers of physics journals. A total-solution provider in publishing services, AIP publishes its own 11 journals (many of which have the highest impact factors in their category), two magazines, and the AIP Conference Proceedings series. Its online publishing platform
Scitation hosts more than 1,000,000 articles from more than 175 scholarly journals, as well as conference proceedings, and other publications of 25 learned society publishers.
http://www.aip.org/press_release/jcp_editor.html
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