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A conversation about SARS-CoV-2 with Prof. Krista Wigginton and Prof. Tamar Kohn

A conversation about SARS-CoV-2 with Prof. Krista Wigginton and Prof. Tamar Kohn

Left to Right: Kris McNeill, Krista Wigginton and Tamar Kohn

Kristopher McNeill

Profs. Wigginton and Kohn joined Kris McNeill for a teleconference to discuss SARS-CoV-2. All three are working from home, Wigginton in Palo Alto (on sabbatical at Stanford), Kohn in Bern, and McNeill in Zurich. Prof. Wigginton is an Associate Professor of Environmental Engineering at the University of Michigan and Prof. Kohn is a Professor of Environmental Engineering at EPFL. Both are experts on the inactivation of viruses. The interview took place on Sunday, April 5, 2020.

Kris: What do we know about this virus and what is the closest analog that we know the most about?

Krista: It’s an enveloped single-stranded RNA virus. Influenza is probably the one we know the most about that is similar. SARS-CoV-1 is, of course, more similar, but it’s hard to work with in the lab. We and others have been doing work with mouse coronavirus, and that’s a close analogue. The human SARS-CoV-1, SARS-CoV-2, and MERS are in the beta-corona virus genus, and mouse coronavirus is also in the beta genus.

Kris: How did you start with working with mouse coronavirus. Were you thinking about getting ahead of the next SARS outbreak or was it motivated more by the lack of data on enveloped viruses.

Krista: A bit of both. When I was writing my CAREER proposal, I was doing some reading about SARS-CoV-1 and MERS was also in the news, and I was trying to figure out if there was a role that environmental engineers could play. And there seemed to be. There was the case of the SARS outbreak in the Amoy Gardens apartment complex in Hong Kong. The general thought in that case was that sewage going through the buildings was mixing with the air system and aerosolized virus from sewage was being transported around the complex. And that’s a bit unusual. These enveloped respiratory viruses, like influenza and RSV, are not usually excreted in feces. You find viral RNA, but not usually infective viruses. So, if that is how SARS-CoV-1 was being transmitted, that is really rare.

Kris: Is there any evidence of this transmission pathway with the new one, SARS-CoV-2?

Krista: There are a lot of reports of people looking for this and failing to find it, including the Nature paper that came out on Thursday (Apr 2). The only one I know that found infective SARS-CoV-2 in feces was a non-peer-reviewed study from the Chinese CDC. It seems it was easier to find evidence for a fecal transmission route for SARS-CoV-1.

Tamar: For SARS-CoV-1, they did find they did find the virus can replicate in intestinal enterocytes. But no one thinks that the gut is the primary infection pathway. These are respiratory viruses.

Kris: What’s your take on why SARS-CoV-2 is worse than SARS-CoV-1.

Tamar: It’s not. In terms of mortality, SARS-CoV-1 is worse.

Krista: And that’s the problem. With the first SARS, you knew when someone was infected. There is no way someone was infected and was just walking around. It was more serious.

Tamar: With SARS-CoV-2 you have mildly symptomatic people in society transmitting the virus. It takes something like a week for the more serious symptoms to appear. During that first week, there seems to be a lot of spreading.

Kris: You are virus scientists in a pandemic. Is your behavior different from the rest of us?

Krista: I’m less worried about fomites than the general public. I’m not worried about getting the virus from cardboard boxes or packages from the grocery store. I have friends who are wiping everything down, but I’m not.

Tamar: I’m not either. If I haven’t ever gotten norovirus from the grocery store, I’m not worried about this one. Norovirus is a hell of a lot tougher and it’s shed in higher numbers.

Krista: Yeah, I’m not very worried about food and surfaces. Maybe some high touch areas are a concern, but not boxes at the store. And, can I say that people are putting a little too much trust in gloves.

Tamar: But gloves do help keep you from touching your face.

Kris: What kind of pandemic would cause you to worry about that route of transmission.

Krista: A gastrointestinal virus, a norovirus pandemic!

Tamar: That would be terrible.

Kris: You both study virus inactivation. How hard would you expect it be to inactivate SARS-CoV-2? Is there anything unusual about it?

Krista: It is a little unusual in that it has a relatively large genome for an RNA virus.

Kris: And larger genomes correspond with faster UV-inactivation. Is that right?

Krista: Yes, that’s right.

Tamar: It’s wimpy. It should be inactivated easily unless it is protected in some way by the matrix it is in, as Krista knows well. She’s been looking at masks.

Kris: Is that right? You are working on masks?

Krista: Yes, Michigan is a hot spot right now and is supposed to peak next week. Like many places, we have a shortage of PPE. Several students in my group are helping the hospital try to figure out how to recycle the N95 masks. We are putting viruses on masks and then testing various ways to inactivate them. I don’t know how translatable these results will be for other places because we are optimizing treatments based on what is available in the hospital in Ann Arbor.

Kris: What viruses are you using?

Krista: The commonly used bacteriophages, MS2 and Phi6, which is the model enveloped virus. We are also using a special influenza that cultures quickly and has a luciferase readout. And we are using a mouse coronavirus, but that is very slow to culture.

Kris: Where is that project now?

Krista: We’ve identified some methods that are effective at inactivating the viruses and at the same time, do not affect the integrity of the masks. The hospital is using our virus inactivation data to decide on how to move forward with a N95 recycling program.

Kris: What about your lab, Tamar?

Tamar: We are doing the same thing that a lot of labs are doing right now, which is looking for the virus in wastewater. Frankly, there’s a lot of talk and not many results yet. Virtual workshops, lots of one-page articles going up, networks and platforms being formed, webinars, you name it. But what we are all shooting for is developing an early warning tool. There’s just not much real data yet. To be honest, even if it works exactly as we hope, it’s not clear that a government would actually use the early warning that we would get from monitoring the wastewater system. We saw very slow responses from governments when faced with thousands of actual sick people. I’m not sure they’ll listen to more abstract results, literally from the sewer. That said, I think having a way to monitor viral load will be helpful in gauging the effectiveness of various mitigation measures. In any case, it will take some time before this tool will be available. Maybe it could help society respond to a second wave, but it won’t be ready to help us with this one.

Kris: Do we monitor for other viruses in wastewater?

Krista: Polio is an example.

Tamar: They monitor for polio in sewage in many countries. I only know of one case where it was successful in finding polio without clinical cases. It was in Israel and it was a Bedouin town where polio was first detected. [Science Translational Medicine 2017, 9, eaaf6786. DOI: 10.1126/scitrnalmed.aaf6786.] So, monitoring sewage can be useful, but what we are seeing now with the current crisis is that just having warning is not enough. You also need the political will to take action when you have warning. I have the feeling that we are overselling what sewage monitoring can do.

Krista: It might be more effective to swab high touch surfaces around town and look for the emergence of virus there. But on the topic of working with sewage to detect viruses, there are new guidelines from the US CDC that require BSL-3 PPE.

Kris: That seems potentially overly strict. Why are they doing that?

Krista: I think people at CDC are worried about the safety of concentrating viruses from wastewater.

Kris: Do they know we already work with it?

Krista: I think they do? But the potential for SARS-CoV-2 viruses to be present has them worried. There’s a lot of evidence that the virus RNA is excreted in feces, but not much evidence that infective viruses are excreted in feces at significant levels.

Kris: You are virus scientists in a pandemic. Is your behavior different from the rest of us?

Krista: I’m less worried about fomites than the general public. I’m not worried about getting the virus from cardboard boxes or packages from the grocery store. I have friends who are wiping everything down, but I’m not.

Tamar: I’m not either. If I haven’t ever gotten norovirus from the grocery store, I’m not worried about this one. Norovirus is a hell of a lot tougher and it’s shed in higher numbers.

Krista: Yeah, I’m not very worried about food and surfaces. Maybe some high touch areas are a concern, but not boxes at the store. And, can I say that people are putting a little too much trust in gloves.

Tamar: But gloves do help keep you from touching your face.

Kris: What kind of pandemic would cause you to worry about that route of transmission.

Krista: A gastrointestinal virus, a norovirus pandemic!

Tamar: That would be terrible.

Kris: You two have been working with viruses for a long time and now suddenly we are all talking about viruses. When this crisis hit, were you thinking ‘finally, it’s my time to shine!’?

Krista: Oh no, I much preferred when the pandemic was a potential future scenario that I could talk about in the first paragraph of my papers or at the start of my talks.

Tamar: Environmental engineers can do a few things that are helpful, but doing science in a pandemic is challenging, because everyone is so rushed that it lowers the quality of the work. But, yes, we can contribute a few things. The mask study that Krista is doing is a good example and translating what we know about aerosol transmission of influenza to SARS-CoV-2 is another. And sewage surveillance is great, though I’m not sure we need quite as many groups working on it as currently are.

Krista: What happens is everyone rushes to the answer the same questions. We saw it with the Ebola outbreak. Everyone focuses in on Ebola and then the crisis passes, and then Ebola research dies off for ten years. And the same thing will happen with SARS. And by chasing research on these very specific viruses, we miss the opportunity to prepare for the next one. If we zoom out a little bit and focus on viruses as a whole in a sustained manner, it would help us for both this one and the next one.

Tamar: Our community is not so cut-throat as some others and that is an opportunity. There is no reason why we need to rush to get a paper out in two weeks. Our community will still welcome the paper if it takes a bit longer to get out. We can slow down a bit and do better science.

Krista: One thing that is nice about what is happening right now is that there is more transparency than usual. Like with the mask work we are involved with, there is a network of universities that is sharing results and protocols, and that is helping to minimize overlap and redundancy.

Kris: Will all of this focused attention on SARS-CoV-2 help us understand influenza transmission better?

Tamar: I think it goes the other way around. The fact that we have had groups working on droplet and aerosol transmission of influenza, which is experimentally difficult to do, means that there was a research base ready when this crisis came. The flu research helps the coronavirus research more than the other way around.

Krista: I agree with that, but coronavirus does bring fresh eyes to virus research, and that will help.

Tamar: Yes, that’s right. And I think there are areas that we have not really delved into yet that this situation has shined light on. For example, there is an interesting question about the interaction between air pollution and susceptibility to this respiratory virus. Environmental engineers are well positioned to study this.

Kris: Thanks for the time, Krista and Tamar. Stay healthy and take care!

 

 

 

 

 

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Outstanding Reviewers for Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts in 2019

We would like to highlight the Outstanding Reviewers for Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts in 2019, as selected by the editorial team, for their significant contribution to the journal. The reviewers have been chosen based on the number, timeliness and quality of the reports completed over the last 12 months.

We would like to say a big thank you to those individuals listed here as well as to all of the reviewers that have supported the journal. Each Outstanding Reviewer will receive a certificate to give recognition for their significant contribution.

Jonathan Benskin, Stockholm University, ORCID: 0000-0001-5940-637X
Delphine Farmer, Colorado State University, ORCID: 0000-0002-6470-9970
Paul Helm, University of Toronto Scarborough, ORCID: 0000-0002-7462-4217
Gerrad Jones, Oregon State University, ORCID: 0000-0002-1529-9506
Tara Kahan, University of Saskatchewan, ORCID: 0000-0001-5074-1155
Anne Soerensen, Stockholm University, ORCID: 0000-0002-8490-8600
Roxana Sühring, Stockholm University, ORCID: 0000-0002-7285-8044
Patricia Tcaciuc, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, ORCID: 0000-0001-7881-2314
Zhanyun Wang, ETH Zürich, ORCID: 0000-0001-9914-7659
Cora Young, York University, ORCID: 0000-0002-6908-5829

We would also like to thank the Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts board and the Environmental Nanotechnology community for their continued support of the journal, as authors, reviewers and readers.

If you would like to become a reviewer for our journal, just email us with details of your research interests and an up-to-date CV or résumé.  You can find more details in our author and reviewer resource centre

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International Year of the Periodic Table: ESPI Themed Issue on Mercury

To celebrate the International Year of the Periodic Table 2019 (IYPT) we are delighted to share with you ESPI’s recent collection on Mercury Biogeochemistry, Exposure, and Impacts

 Edited by ESPI Associate Editor Helen Hsu-Kim (Duke University) and Guest Editors Chris Eckley (EPA) and Noelle Selin (MIT), this issue highlights a selection of high-quality research relating to the fate and effects of mercury on humans and the environment. We’ve made these articles free to access until 30th November – we hope you enjoy reading them!

Read the full collection

Highlights include:

Hg isotopes reveal in-stream processing and legacy inputs in East Fork Poplar Creek, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA
Jason Demers et al

Responses of deposition and bioaccumulation in the Great Lakes region to policy and other large-scale drivers of mercury emissions
Judith Perlinger et al

Microbial community structure with trends in methylation gene diversity and abundance in mercury-contaminated rice paddy soils in Guizhou, China
Dwayne Elias et al

Mining legacy across a wetland landscape: high mercury in Upper Peninsula (Michigan) rivers, lakes, and fish
Charles Kerfoot et al

Emerging investigator series: methylmercury speciation and dimethylmercury production in sulfidic solutions
Andrew M. Graham et al

Also, why not browse more of our great element-focussed work on Arsenic, Iron, Cadmium and the Radioelements

Click here to return to the Journal homepage

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Cryosphere Chemistry: Themed Issue in ESPI

Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts (ESPI) seeks your high-impact research for our upcoming Themed Issue on Cryosphere Chemistry.  

Guest Edited by Rose Cory and Kerri Pratt (University of Michigan) this issue will showcase studies on chemical processes in sea ice, snow, glaciers, ice sheets, permafrost soils as well as studies on waters draining permafrost soils. A wide range of contributions are encouraged, from atmospheric chemistry (e.g. atmospheric aerosols and trace gases) to biogeochemistry (e.g. chemical weathering or organic matter chemistry). Laboratory, field or modeling studies from diverse environments (e.g. glaciers, high latitude and high altitude systems) are welcomed.

Submissions for this Themed Issue are due by 29th February 2020 – if you would like to submit to this Themed Issue, please contact the Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts Editorial Office at espi-rsc@rsc.org to let us know.

 

Guest Editors (Left to Right): Rose Cory (University of Michigan) and Kerri Pratt (University of Michigan)

Click here to return to the journal homepage

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Dr Michelle Scherer et al. Win SERDP 2018 Project of the Year Award for Environmental Restoration

Congratulations to Dr. Michelle Scherer and her research group for winning the SERDP 2018 Project of the Year award for Environmental Restoration for their project Biologically Mediated Abiotic Degradation of Chlorinated Ethenes: A New Conceptual Framework.

This research which was funded by SERDP was recently published in Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts Vol 20, issue 10, with the title  ‘Reduction of PCE and TCE by magnetite revisited‘ and featured as the outside front cover of the same issue.

 

Left picture: Dr Scherer and her team with the SERDP award, taken by Ben Zweig.  Right picture: ESPI front cover highlighting Dr Scherer et al.’s award winning work

 

 

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Fall ACS Symposium: Emerging Investigators in Environmental Science

We are delighted to announce a session taking place at the 256th ACS National Meeting & Exposition in Boston titled “Showcasing Emerging Investigators: A Symposium by the RSC Environmental Science Journals”. The session is presided over by the Editors-in-Chief for the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Environmental Science journals, Kris McNeill (ESPI), Peter Vikesland (ES Nano) and David Cwiertny (ESWRT). We warmly invite you to join us on 20th August for this exciting Symposium.

The Symposium will feature talks from six early career environmental scientists who have been featured as Emerging Investigators in either Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts, Environmental Science: Nano or Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology. The work that they will present at this event showcases the high-quality, cutting-edge research being conducted by the early-career members of our community.

Symposium details:

When: Monday 20th August, 1:00 PM

Where: Room 259A, Boston Convention & Exhibition Center

Speakers and Talk titles:

Stacey Louie University of Houston, USA

Formation and effects of heterogeneous protein-humic surface coatings on nanoparticles

Reginald Rogers Rochester Institute of Technology, USA

Using carbon nanomaterials to address the grand challenge of clean water for all people

Cora Young York University, Canada

Understanding long-range transport of perfluoroalkyl substances and flame retardants

Anke Neumann Newcastle University, UK

Reactions at the Fe mineral-water interface: Impact on contaminant fate

Nicole Fahrenfeld Rutgers University, USA

Viability and ecology-based tools to improve hazard characterization for environmental antibiotic resistance

Ameet Pinto Northeastern University, USA

Who, where, and why of the drinking water microbiome

            Find out more           

This Symposium complements the growing Emerging Investigators Series of papers published by each of the Environmental Science journals, as well as the broader mission of the RSC to support researchers in the early stages of their careers. Through the Emerging Investigator Series initiative, the journals provide a unique platform for early-career environmental scientists & engineers to showcase their work to the broadest possible audience. More details about the Emerging Investigators Series for each of the journals can be found at rsc.li/emerging-series

In addition, look out for Executive Editor Simon Neil during the event. You can meet him at the symposium or throughout the conference at the RSC stand (number 2008)

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Modeling in Environmental Chemistry: Themed Issue

Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts (ESPI) seeks your high-impact research for our upcoming Themed Issue on Modeling in Environmental Chemistry

Edited by ESPI Associate Editor Matthew MacLeod (Stockholm University) and Guest Editors Todd Gouin (TG Environmental Research) and Tom McKone (University of California), this issue will showcase original research, perspectives, and reviews, relating to the use of modeling strategies to understand environmental systems. The scope of this issue is broad, and includes but is not limited to the following topics:

  • Global modeling of pollutants
  • Environmental fate modeling
  • Bioaccumulation modeling
  • Exposure assessment
  • Modeling in regulatory risk assessments
  • Toxicokinetic/toxicodynamic modelling

The submission window for this Themed Issue closes at the end of October 2017 – if you would like to submit to this Themed Issue, please contact the ESPI Editorial Office at espi-rsc@rsc.org to register your interest.

Guest Editors: Left to Right – Matthew MacLeod (Stockholm University) Todd Gouin (TG Environmental Research) and Tom McKone (University of California)

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Call for Input: Grand Challenges and Opportunities for Environmental Engineering and Science for the 21st Century

To help guide the next generation of environmental engineers and scientists, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has appointed a committee of experts to conduct a study on Grand Challenges and Opportunities in Environmental Engineering and Science for the 21st Century.

Environmental challenges continue to multiply as the global population expands and as demands for clean water, food, and energy rise, all in the context of global climate change.  With expertise in a wide range of fields and with input from the scientific community, the committee will identify the biggest environmental challenges to be solved over the next several decades and comment on how education and training might be better aligned to address those challenges.

The committee slate is provisional, pending a 20-day comment period ending on March 29, 2017 and final approval.

 

                                                    Call for Input: What are the biggest challenges?

The committee invites the scientific community and the public to submit ideas about ambitious but achievable goals that harness science, technology, and innovation from environmental engineering and science to solve important national or global problems.  Submit your ideas here.

 

                                      First Public Meeting on May 4: Register Today!

The first public meeting will be held in Washington, DC and also on the web on Thursday, May 4, 2017 (agenda TBA).  Attendees will hear from committee chair Domenico Grasso of the University of Delaware and from the National Science Foundation and other sponsors about the goals of this effort.  The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) will also share insights into its highly successful Grand Challenges for Engineering study and campaign, upon which this new study is modeled. Register to attend today!

If you are interested in following the activities of this study, sign up for email updates on the study website and discuss the study on Twitter using #GrandChallenges.

 

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Major society chemistry publishers jointly commit to integration with ORCID

ORCID provides an identifier for individuals to use with their name as they engage in research, scholarship and innovation activities, ensuring authors gain full credit for their work.

Today, we signed their open letter, along with ACS Publications, committing to unambiguous identification of all authors that publish in our journals.

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The Royal Society of Chemistry and the Publications Division of the American Chemical Society (ACS) today each became signatories to the ORCID Open Letter, reasserting the commitment of both organizations to enhancing the scholarly publishing experience for researchers worldwide who are involved in chemistry and allied fields.

The commitment by these two global chemistry publishers to undertake new workflow integration with technology infrastructure provided by ORCID, a not-for-profit organization that provides unique identifiers for researchers and scholars, will enable both societies to provide unambiguous designation of author names within chemistry and across the broader sciences. This partnership with ORCID will resolve ambiguity in researcher identification caused by name changes, cultural differences in name presentation, and the inconsistent use of name abbreviations that is too often a source of confusion for those who must rely on the published scientific record.

By becoming signatories to the ORCID Open Letter, these two major chemical societies are voicing their intent to collect ORCID iDs for all submitting authors through use of the ORCID API, and to display such identifiers in the articles published in their respective society journals. The integration of such activities within the publishers’ workflows means authors will benefit from automated linkages between their ORCID record and unique identifiers embedded within their published research articles, ensuring their contributions are appropriately recognized and credited.

During the publishing process, ACS and the Royal Society of Chemistry will automatically deposit publications to Crossref, which in turn will coordinate with ORCID to link and update the publishing activity populated to authors’ respective ORCID profiles, thus attributing each published work to the correct researcher. Existing holders of an ORCID iD will encounter a one-time prompt to grant permission for the linkage. If authors do not have an ORCID iD, they can easily enroll without navigating away from the publishers’ manuscript submission site. If users wish to revoke integrated ORCID profile access at any time, they can elect to do so through their ACS, Royal Society of Chemistry or ORCID accounts.

Both ACS Publications and the Royal Society of Chemistry understand the importance of attributing accurately the scholarly contributions of research scientists in the context of their other professional activities. “ACS has supported ORCID since the outset of the initiative,” says Sarah Tegen, Ph.D., Vice President of Global Editorial & Author Services at ACS Publications. “We are pleased now to align with the Royal Society of Chemistry in this endeavor, as both societies underscore our willingness not only to encourage and assist our respective authors in establishing their unique ORCID profiles, but also to help tackle the broader challenge of researcher name disambiguation in the scholarly literature. With the integration of author ORCID iDs in our publishing workflows, we will ensure that researchers receive proper credit for their accomplishments.”

Emma Wilson, Ph.D., Director of Publishing at the Royal Society of Chemistry adds, “We have been a supporter of ORCID since 2013, recognizing the benefits it brings to researchers; ORCID can and will make a huge difference to our authors’ ability to gain full credit for their work. ORCID will also help researchers meet the requirements of their research funders — for example, a number of funders have already announced that all grant applicants must now include a researcher’s ORCID iD. A unified system that integrates and links research-related information with accurate and timely linkage to the publishing output of authors has the potential to simplify and speed up their grant applications — something we know is important to researchers.”

“The ACS and the Royal Society of Chemistry have been long-standing supporters of ORCID,” says Laurel Haak, Ph.D., Executive Director, ORCID. “We are pleased to see ORCID integration into ACS and Royal Society of Chemistry Publications systems. This will be a substantial benefit to researchers in the chemistry community, both in improving search and discovery of research articles, and for attribution and recognition of researchers’ contributions to the discipline.”

About the American Chemical Society and ACS Publications

The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. With nearly 157,000 members, ACS is the world’s largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

ACS Publications, a division of the American Chemical Society, is a nonprofit scholarly publisher of 50 peer-reviewed journals and a range of eBooks at the interface of chemistry and allied sciences, including physics and biology. ACS Publications journals are among the most-cited, most-trusted and most-read within the scientific literature. Respected for their editorial rigor, ACS journals offer high-quality service to authors and readers, including rapid time to publication, a range of channels for researchers to access ACS Publications’ award-winning web and mobile delivery platforms, and a comprehensive program of open access publishing options for authors and their funders. ACS Publications also publishes Chemical & Engineering News — the Society’s newsmagazine covering science and technology, business and industry, government and policy, education and employment aspects of the chemistry field.

About the Royal Society of Chemistry

The Royal Society of Chemistry is the world’s leading chemistry community, advancing excellence in the chemical sciences. With over 50,000 members and a knowledge business that spans the globe, we are the U.K.’s professional body for chemical scientists; a not-for-profit organisation with 175 years of history and an international vision for the future. We promote, support and celebrate chemistry. We work to shape the future of the chemical sciences — for the benefit of science and humanity.

About ORCID

ORCID’s vision is a world where all who participate in research, scholarship and innovation are uniquely identified and connected to their contributions across disciplines, borders and time. ORCID provides an identifier for individuals to use with their name as they engage in research, scholarship and innovation activities. It provides open tools that enable transparent and trustworthy connections between researchers, their contributions and affiliations. The organization provides this service to help people find information and to simplify reporting and analysis. ORCID is a not-for-profit organization, sustained by fees from member organizations. Its work is open, transparent and non-proprietary. The organization strives to be a trusted component of research infrastructure with the goal of providing clarity in the breadth of research contributions and the people who make them.

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Emerging Investigator Series for Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts

Desiree Plata (Yale University) will be overseeing this series and reviewing applications.

Some of the best work in the field of Environmental Science being conducted by early-career researchers was showcased in the Emerging Investigators Issue of Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts. As highlighted in the Editorial introducing this issue, starting in 2017, we will be running an Emerging Investigator Series, similar to the successful series of our sister journal Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology (http://rsc.li/emerging-series). This continuous format is designed to allow more flexibility for contributors to participate in the venture without the restriction of submission deadlines and benefit the Environmental Science community through continued exposure to the exciting work being done by its early-career members.

With the introduction of this new Series, we are delighted to announce that Desiree Plata will be taking on the role of Emerging Investigator Series Editor. Desiree has been an active member of the Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts Editorial Board for over a year and will be overseeing this Series and reviewing applications going forward.

Desiree adds: “I am looking forward to working with my colleagues to build a rigorous series that highlights the most exciting advances in their research. In addition, I hope that the Series will inspire future research directions by identifying needs and synergies in the cross-cutting intellectual spaces we are defining as a community.”

To be eligible for the new Emerging Investigator Series you will need to have completed your PhD (or equivalent degree) within the last 10 years and have an independent career. If you are interested in contributing to the Series please contact the Editorial Office (espi-rsc@rsc.org) and provide the following information:

  • Your up-to-date CV (no longer than 2 pages), which should include a summary of education and career, a list of relevant publications, any notable awards, honours or professional activities in the field, and a website URL if relevant;
  • A synopsis of the article intended to be submitted to the Series, including a tentative submission date. This can be an original research or review article. Please visit the journal website for more details on article types.All articles published as part of the Emerging Investigator Series will be widely promoted and will be collated together on the Journal website. Please note that articles submitted to the journal for the Series will undergo the usual peer-review process.

We hope you enjoy reading the final Emerging Investigators issue in its current form; please contact the Editorial Office (espi-rsc@rsc.org) if you are interested to contribute to the Emerging Investigators Series.

Keep up to date with the latest papers added to this Series on our twitter feed (@EnvSciRSC) with the hashtags #EmergingInvestigators #ESPI

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