Championing Research

A message from the new Editor-in-Chief of ChERD, Jerry Heng

IT is with great honour and humility I assume the role as Editor-in-Chief for Chemical Engineering Research and Design (ChERD), the official journal for the European Federation of Chemical Engineering: Part A and a publication of the Institution of Chemical Engineers. I would like to record my appreciation to our outgoing Editor-in-Chief, Eva Sorensen, for her leadership and service to ChERD over the last 11 years, and for her mentorship over the last couple of years in my role within ChERD as her deputy. Eva leaves ChERD in a very good position and very big shoes to fill.

ChERD aims to be the principal international journal for publication of high quality, high impact, original research in the field of chemical engineering. Over the years, the journal has continued to evolve and grow, with original work published in the field as set out in the journal aims and scope encompassing the following core areas and topics: distillation and absorption; fluid flow; heat and mass transfer; materials processing and product development; particle technology; pharmaceutical engineering; process systems engineering; reaction engineering; and separation processes.

ChERD aims to be the principal international journal for publication of high quality, high impact, original research in the field of  chemical engineering...(and) will continue to promote the excellent and diverse work that chemical engineers undertake

These areas and topics will remain our core focus and ChERD will continue to promote the excellent and diverse work that chemical engineers undertake. ChERD also publishes regular special issues highlighting research associated with a theme. Recently, it published a collection of articles in a special issue on Machine Learning. Furthermore, selected articles contributed towards an IChemE cross-journal special issue highlighting research into climate change, a topic which almost certainly will remain high on the agenda for the foreseeable future.

I am keen to develop ChERD’s visibility on social media and to promote the journal. We invite colleagues interested in volunteering their expertise and time to reach out to us, as we seek to strengthen ChERD’s position and grow our readership and authorship internationally

I reflect with fond memories on my first experience as an editor, one for my secondary school annual magazine, Ad Astra. The use of technology has evolved significantly over the decades but the professionalism of all involved for a successful publication remain. I feel it is only appropriate to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to all involved; researchers, authors, reviewers, editors and the editorial office, for their contribution to ChERD’s success over the years. Specifically, to Maria-Chiara Ferrari, Catherine Xuereb, Andreas Linninger and Michael Baldea, who are retiring from our board. I would also like to extend a warm welcome to Mirco Magnini, Jérôme Morchain, Meenesh Singh, Ioannis Kookos and Richard Lakerveld who are joining ChERD. I have had the pleasure of meeting with almost the whole editorial board over the last couple of months, albeit only virtually now, and hope to be able to meet in person when we are able to again. I am very proud to be working with this outstanding team at ChERD.

Challenges ahead

The last year has been a challenging one in both our professional and personal lives, a year that probably none of us had expected. The pandemic has exposed various forms of inequalities. I can reaffirm our journal’s commitment to observe inclusion and diversity as well as to provide equal opportunities and fair chance within our editorial, author and reviewer networks. I reiterate that at ChERD, we stand against racism and discrimination and fully support the equal opportunities for publishing. Whilst the journal has made significant strides in the promotion of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI), we still have much to do. We will strive towards representations of all groups in our authors, reviewers and editorial board. In championing EDI, our focus this year will be to recognise women in science and early- career researchers. Planned special issues will celebrate the amazing contributions of female researchers and recognise the future research talent of our rising stars, with a call for nominations launched earlier in the year. I am pleased to report that these programmes have kicked off extremely well with a very strong commitment to contributing already received.

ChERD is here because of our scientific community; researchers, authors, reviewers and readers. Researchers have a choice of where to submit their work for publication. There is also increasing demand for timely handling of submissions whilst at the same time ensuring that we carefully manage editor and reviewer workloads. It is through such partnerships that we continue to enjoy high-quality publications. In addition, I am keen to develop ChERD’s visibility on social media and to promote the journal. We invite colleagues interested in volunteering their expertise and time to reach out to us, as we seek to strengthen ChERD’s position and grow our readership and authorship internationally.

I am very excited to be embarking on this role and invite you to be part of our journey in strengthening ChERD’s position as one of the leading journals in the field of chemical engineering.