American Chemical Society Names Bryan Brooks, Ph.D., as New Editor-in-chief for Environmental Science & Technology Letters

February 3, 2020
Bryan W. Brooks

Bryan W. Brooks, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Environmental Science and Biomedical Studies at Baylor University, has been named editor-in-chief of the American Chemical Society journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters.

Media Contacts: American Chemical Society, newsroom@acs.org, and Lori Fogleman, Baylor University Media and Public Relations, 254-710-6275
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WASHINGTON (Feb. 3, 2020) — The Publications Division of the American Chemical Society (ACS) has announced that Bryan W. Brooks, Ph.D., of Baylor University has joined Environmental Science & Technology Letters as editor-in-chief.

Brooks is Distinguished Professor of Environmental Science and Biomedical Studies at Baylor and director of the Environmental Health Science Program.

Brooks’ transdisciplinary research interests broadly include understanding and managing anthropogenic activities and stressors across levels of biological organization. He routinely works internationally on water quality, environmental contaminants and sustainability issues, particularly related to rapidly urbanizing regions on six continents. Brooks also serves as the visiting Pearl River scholar chair professor at Jinan University. He coordinates the Global Horizon Scanning Project, which identifies priority research questions necessary to achieve sustainable environmental quality around the world and is principal investigator on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s UNCOVER-EH initiative, which identifies challenges and research needs for environmental health in the United States.

A native Californian, Brooks received a B.S. and M.S. in biological sciences from the University of Mississippi and completed his Ph.D. in environmental science at the University of North Texas in 2002.

“As editor-in-chief, I plan to thoughtfully and seamlessly engage the new editors-in-chief of Environmental Science & Technology, ACS ES&T Water, ACS ES&T Engineering and ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering, particularly as the scopes of ACS ES&T Water and ACS ES&T Engineering are developed,” Brooks said. “Because manuscripts describing cross-disciplinary research or addressing emerging issues are of particular interest to Environmental Science & Technology Letters, I also hope to develop a new article type, ‘Global Perspectives,’ which will intentionally provide synthesis, critiques and recommendations on contemporary and strategic topics of international importance.”

Since the journal’s founding in 2014, Environmental Science & Technology Letters has been under the leadership of Editor Bruce Logan, Ph.D., and Editor-in-Chief of Environmental Science & Technology, David Sedlak, Ph.D. With the appointment of Brooks, ACS is establishing Environmental Science & Technology Letters as a stand-alone journal, where it can build upon the strong foundations it gained under the arm of Environmental Science & Technology and further delineate its scope and mission. Environmental Science & Technology Letters will continue to work closely with the environmental science family of ACS journals, including the new journals ACS ES&T Water and ACS ES&T Engineering, which will launch later this year.

“In the six years since ACS established Environmental Science & Technology Letters, the journal has grown to be among the most impactful in the field of environmental science,” said James Milne, Ph.D., president, ACS Publications Division. “The strength of ACS’ environmental science portfolio has made it now possible for Environmental Science & Technology Letters to branch out and chart its own course, and Professor Brooks is the right person to lead the journal in this exciting new chapter. We look forward to welcoming his ideas on how to strengthen Environmental Science & Technology Letters even further.”

Published as soon as accepted and summarized in monthly issues, Environmental Science & Technology is an international forum for brief communications on experimental or theoretical results of exceptional timeliness in all aspects of environmental science (pure and applied), including human health, and short reviews on emerging environmental science and technology topics. With an impact factor of 6.934, over 3,500 citations and approximately a quarter-million downloads in 2019, the journal has quickly established itself as a leader in the environmental science community.

The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. ACS’ mission is to advance the broader chemistry enterprise and its practitioners for the benefit of Earth and its people. The Society is a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related information and research through its multiple research solutions, peer-reviewed journals, scientific conferences, eBooks and weekly news periodical Chemical & Engineering News. ACS journals are among the most cited, most trusted and most read within the scientific literature; however, ACS itself does not conduct chemical research. As a specialist in scientific information solutions (including SciFinder® and STN®), its CAS division powers global research, discovery and innovation. ACS’ main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

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