Fifteen years ago, in volume three, issue three of the journal, I wrote my first editorial. I had been thrown in at the deep-end. Overnight, I had changed from a scientist who read journals to an editor who had to produce just one. I concentrated on the present; it was all I could do and I wrote my first editorial. That was a milestone in my personal history and I had no idea then that after all these years I would still be writing editorials, nor that the first one I wrote can now be held up as a mirror to the present one. I opened with: Indoor Environment has a new editorin-chief. It was very simple but it led to two and a half pages of text as I strived to explain myself. That was about 15 years ago; the wheel has now turned a full circle: Indoor and Built Environment has a new editor-in-chief. It is as easy as that. While I had to introduce myself, our tyro has the luxury of being introduced. No card on a silver tray, just words on a page. Appropriately, words are our stock in trade. So, as I slip out of the back door, Dr Chuck Yu, Professor Chuck Yu, as you will read later, comes through the front door. Formality aside, there is a camaraderie among wordsmiths; let me introduce Chuck. It could have been otherwise, but our coming together in a publisher’s office for the formal change of roles was not the meeting of strangers. I had known Chuck for a number of years, and a couple of years ago, he was appointed as a member of our editorial board. I do not know where we first met; probably at a scientific meeting, somewhere. It could have been in foreign parts or at the Building Research Establishment (BRE) where Chuck worked for many years, but it was a while ago. My task of introducing Chuck is made easier by the fact that I know him well. Chuck was born in Hong Kong, but he has spent the greater part of his life in the UK. He has been through the English educational mill, schools, and university. He worked at BRE for about 20 years, conducting research on a variety of subjects, and this background makes him far better suited to the role of an editor than I ever was. I had to learn as I went along. So, why has he taken on the sometimes thankless task of editing a scientific journal? There are several reasons. BRE was changing, its work now reflects the market more than the needs of consumers – such is the penalty of privatisation. There comes a time when you have to move on. Taking on the job of an editor is not just about producing a journal. There is a very interesting spin-off that editors are feted because being an editor of a journal is a position of some power. You are the master of the journal, not its servant. People would like to know you either because they hope that you might publish their work or because they like the work you produce. Chuck has grabbed the opportunity with both hands. He has re-entered the academic world to become a visiting professor at two Chinese universities: Adjunct Professor of Indoor Air Quality at the Xi’an Jiaotong University located in Xi’an, the ancient capital of China, and a Guest Professor of the Built Environment at Chongqing University in the Shapingba district of Chongqing municipality. As if this was not enough, he has resurrected the International Society of the Built Environment (ISBE). Long-time readers of this journal will know that ISBE was the parent to the original journal