Table of Contents

The first year

Loel Barr

One year ago ACS launched Chemical Innovation. This has been a rewarding experience for me, and one of the best parts of it has been working with a talented and dedicated staff. I thought that this occasion would be a good opportunity for them to give you their reflections on year one.

Nancy McGuire

Associate Editor
I’m writing this just after signing off on the final proofs for the December issue of Chemical Innovation—one year down, many more to go. When I started this job, the magazine was called CHEMTECH, and plans for the redesign were picking up steam. The pace has not slowed down this year. We have added a Web edition and several new departments, and we’ve had to decide on everything from what kinds of articles go in each category to color schemes and where to put the CI logo.

I’ve been covering the materials science and inorganic chemistry beat, and it’s been encouraging to see these fields giving biochemistry and pharmaceuticals a run for their money. It’s even better when all the disciplines combine to create biomimetic materials and medical applications for nanotechnology. Eight years ago, I experienced the corporate downsizing mania firsthand, so it’s heartening to hear from industry folks now about the resurgence of industrial research. Some of my former colleagues ask me if I miss doing R&D, and if I would ever consider going back to lab work. I tell them that nowhere else could I explore such a wide variety of current research and share the informational wealth with such a diverse audience. And I can honestly say that this is the only job I’ve ever had where I have been paid to read cartoons!

Julia Belcher

Associate Production Editor
I was hired as the Associate Production Editor for CI at the beginning of January 2000. Although I had worked on CHEMTECH and contributed to the redesign effort as a contractor to the Publishing and Creative Services department, “production editor” was a newly created position on the CI staff. Once we got over the shock, and the thrill, of the new magazine, I settled in to keep track of the many elements (e.g., text, art, cartoons, and copyright forms) that make up each month’s issue. This means juggling at least three issues at one time—one almost ready for press, one in midcycle, and one just beginning to take shape.

As the months went by, I took on a few more tasks to fill “holes” in the production pipeline and make myself part of the team. I became the contact person for our cartoonists, figured out each issue’s pagination, and generally (but not always gently!) reminded the editors about deadlines, deadlines, deadlines. If you imagine, as I do, that each issue is a big puzzle that all the members of the CI staff put together, then I’m the person who runs between everyone else, handing around the pieces and making sure none get lost along the way.

Marc Fitzgerald

Assistant Editor
Wow—a whole year has passed. I can only vaguely remember those old silver covers. Much of the content is the same, but dispersed among the hallmarks of CHEMTECH (features, Heart Cut, Patent Watch, Touring the Net, The Last Word, and cartoons), there are new components. Now we have Leading the Way, Chemscripts, Learning from the Past, and the return of CHEMTECH’s founding editor’s column, The Industrial Chymist. So from the ashes of CHEMTECH, a new phoenix really did emerge.

As the editorial staff member with the most years on the publication, I have seen the best elements of CHEMTECH evolve and expand into a product that sparks interest across a broader spectrum of technical and business professionals.

It always bothered me that more biotech articles were not presented in CHEMTECH. Mike Block and the 1998 CHEMTECH Ad Hoc Taskforce addressed my concerns. Now, as a trained biochemist, I am delighted to look for stories of interest not only to chemists, but also to biochemists and biotechnologists. So if you have a story, we have a forum.

Chemical Innovation has come a long way, and I am looking forward to bigger and better things for CI in the future. Happy first anniversary!

Space doesn’t permit comments from others who work regularly on CI, but I want to acknowledge the important contributions of Beth Mitchell, copy editor; Rhonda Saunders, art director, Nap Reyes, production artist; and Renee Schlattman, composition specialist. We’re all grateful to ACS Publications management for giving us the opportunity to create CI for the chemical community.