A Change of Editor — Happy Retirement John

Abstract

If the inside front cover of this issue of the journal is examined, you will see that there has been a change in the Editor-in-Chief for the journal, Indoor and Built Environment (IBE). Dr John A. Hoskins was the editor of this journal. He inherited the editorialship in 1994 when the journal was published under a different name, Indoor Environment, by Karger. He re-named the journal to Indoor and Built Environment in 1996, the name by which it has been known since volume 6. As such, John was the first editor under this name. As the years have rolled by, John decided to resign as the Editor in March this year, so he could pursue his other interests such as the dream of retirement, although he will continue to serve as an Associate Editor for the journal. How can we blame him after 15 years at the helm? John has served the journal with distinction for more than 15 years. The journal, Indoor Environment was established in 1992 as a learned journal of the International Society of the Built Environment (ISBE) and John was the Associate Editor for the journal at that time. He was the editor-in-chief for the journals, Indoor Environment (1994–1996) and Indoor and Built Environment (1996– 2002) underKarger. During the periodwhen ISBE could no longer support the funding of the journal, John successfully saved the journal, by offering the publishing right of the journal to SAGE. He was instrumental to the success of the journal by reacting to the requirement to change at the time when there was an increasing interest in the research and issues relating to the built environment and the effect of the built environment has on the indoor environment. He insisted on the independence of the journal and the value of the peer review process. During the transition and the subsequent period under his editorialship (2002 to March 2009), the journal has flourished to become one of the established international journals for the general subject areas of indoor environmental quality and the built environment. The journal publishes quality peer reviewed papers and John should be accredited for guiding IBE to its present position. The new editor is Dr Chuck Yu and he is the second editor of this journal under its best known name. Chuck is also the President and Executive Director of ISBE and he has pledged to continue a strong link with the journal by publishing special issues of papers presented at conferences organized by or associated with ISBE. John was a graduate chemist from Queen Mary College and a MSc graduate from Brunel University in London. His early training focused on Organic Chemistry. After this he travelled to Australia on a doctorate scholarship to study Medicinal Chemistry at the Australian National University in Canberra. Upon returning to England he held a post-doctoral fellowship in the Chemistry Department at the University of North Wales in Bangor. Then in 1973 he joined the Medical Research Council (MRC) in their unit for metabolic diseases in Psychiatry at Sheffield University. He was later transferred to the MRC Toxicology Unit in Carshalton in 1978 and then, Leicester University to work in a field from which he has never departed. He focused his work in the area of mineral fibres, more specifically asbestos and has become a world recognized expert on the subject. In 1980 John became a Fellow member of the Royal Society of Chemistry and a Chartered Chemist.