New Editor For Analytical Chemistry

The next editor-in-chief of will be Jonathan V. Sweedler, James R. Eiszner Family Professor of Chemistry at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), and director of the Roy J. Carver Biotechnology Center, the American Chemical Society has announced. ACS is the publisher of the journal, as well as C&EN.

Sweedler will succeed Royce W. Murray, Kenan Professor of Chemistry at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, who will retire from the journal at the end of this year. Murray has served as editor-in-chief of Analytical Chemistry since 1991. Sweedler is currently an associate editor of the journal and will take over the position on Jan. 1, 2012.

“We are delighted by the decision” of the search committee, says Susan King, senior vice president of the ACS Journals Publishing Group. “One of the strengths of the ACS journals portfolio is that the editors are active working scientists. Jonathan brings research excellence and editorial experience.”

“Jonathan is a terrific scholar with very broad interests,” Murray says. “And as an associate editor, he’s been very effective in working with authors.”

Sweedler received a B.S. in chemistry from the University of California, Davis, in 1983 and a Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from the University of Arizona in 1989. He joined the faculty at UIUC in 1991. His research there has focused on bioanalytical chemistry, specifically small-volume peptidomics and metabolomics.

One of the challenges for the journal going forward, Sweedler says, will be to keep up with the changing technological landscape and new ways of delivering content. But he also sees these challenges as an opportunity to further expand the journal’s reach.

“Royce is leaving very large shoes to fill,” Sweedler says. “He’s done an excellent job” broadening the scope of the journal to include more subdisciplines while continuing to increase its quality and impact factor.

“He’s a true statesman,” Brian Crawford, president of the ACS Publications Division, says of Murray. “It has been a privilege and an honor to work with him, not only on the journal but also on the society’s Governing Board for Publishing, where we benefited from his wise counsel.”