Accolades for Almut Beate Heinrich, our Managing-Editor

Int J Life Cycle Assess (2008) 13:287–289 DOI 10.1007/s11367-008-0017-9 EDITORIAL Accolades for Almut Beate Heinrich, our Managing-Editor Walter Klöpffer & Alvin L. Young & Henner Hollert & Ulrich Förstner & Wim Salomons & Zhihong Xu Received: 26 May 2008 / Accepted: 29 May 2008 / Published online: 31 May 2008 # Springer-Verlag 2008 On Sunday 25 May 2008, our Managing Editor, Almut Heinrich, received the SETAC (Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry) Europe Environmental Education Award at its Europe Annual Meeting in Warsaw, Poland. This is a singular distinction in that this award is traditionally given to academic teachers, not the Managing Editor of four journals. The nomination for this award highlighted Almut’s incredible career of contributions to environmental education: Almut Heinrich was educated in Heidelberg, Germany, where she received the Master Diploma at the University of Heidelberg and started her career in publishing at SpringerVerlag Heidelberg. While at Springer-Verlag, she had the unique opportunity to work as a Publisher Editor in the Chemistry Department under the leadership of Dr. Friedrich L. Boschke, one of the leading science editors of his time. She was responsible for the development of a program on Applied Chemistry that more and more focused on Environmental Chemistry (e.g. The Handbook of Environmental Chemistry by Otto Hutzinger), Food Chemistry (e.g. Zeitschrift für Lebensmittel-Untersuchung und -Forschung) and Analytical Chemistry (e.g. Fresenius’ Zeitschrift für Analytische Chemie). Under Almut’s guidance, the program eventually comprised monographs, textbooks, advances series, handbooks (e.g. Handbuch der gefährlichen Güter by Günter Hommel) and journals (e.g. the Bulletin of Polymer Chemistry). After 14 years with Springer, Almut moved to ecomed publishers, Landsberg/Lech (Bavaria) where she started in 1989 “Umweltwissenschaften und Schadstoff-Forschung (UWSF)” W. Klöpffer LCA Consult & Review, Am Dachsberg 56E, 60435 Frankfurt/M., Germany e-mail: [email protected] U. Förstner Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), Institute of Environmental Technology and Energy Economics, Eissendorfer Str. 40, 21071 Hamburg, Germany e-mail: [email protected] A. L. Young (*) A.L.Young Consultants, Inc., 1810 Tranquility Road, Cheyenne, WY 82009, USA e-mail: [email protected] W. Salomons Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM), Vrije Universiteit, De Boelelaan 1085, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands e-mail: [email protected] H. Hollert Department of Ecosystem Analysis, RWTH Aachen University, Institute for Environmental Research (Biology V), Worringerweg 1, 52074 Aachen, Germany e-mail: [email protected] Z. Xu Griffith University, Centre for Forestry and Horticultural Research, Kessels Road, Nathan, Brisbane QLD 4111, Australia e-mail: [email protected] 288 with Professor Otto Hutzinger as Editor-in-Chief. This was the first German scientific journal devoted to chemicals in the environment. The success of this journal prompted the launch of an English-language sister journal “Environmental Science and Pollution Research (ESPR)” in 1994 which developed rapidly. Already in 1996, ESPR was selected for coverage by Science Citation Index (ISI) and today is recognized as one of the leading journals in environmental science, and is distributed in more than 50 nations. In 1996, Almut Heinrich started a completely new field: Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) with Walter Klöpffer as Editor-in-Chief. “The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment” has been the only international journal devoted to LCA exclusively and was accepted by ISI services in 2000. The latest journal initiated and currently published with Almut Heinrich as Managing Editor is the “Journal of Soils and Sediments” (2001). Again, a novelty, since this journal treats – as indicated in the name – soils and sediments together. All four of the journals are now available online, and the website <http://www.scientificjournals.com> has become an important Internet portal that also offers access to the Internet journal Environmental and Health Science (including the Global LCA Village, and a free discussion forum). This may seem standard now, but it certainly was not when she started these activities in the second half of the 1990’s. This is the right place to also recognize those individuals that have contributed so much to Almut Heinrich’s very successful career, namely Udo Graf, the managing director of ecomed publishers, and then, after the merger of ecomed with Hüthig Jehle Rehm Publishers in Heidelberg, Clemens Köhler and Peter Habit, the executive and managing directors of the Hüthig Jehle Rehm Company. The three of them provided the platform for Almut’s work to be conducted in a most effective way. They brought her back to Heidelberg and gave her the freedom for a selfdependent and creative work. Almut’s return to Heidelberg has now led to a new junction with Springer-Verlag, where under Paul Roos’ direction, the journals are published and the editors, the authors, and Almut have found a new home! For Almut, it is the closure of one cycle and the beginning of a new one. To her great pleasure, Hüthig has offered her Int J Life Cycle Assess (2008) 13:287–289 hospitality in that she can keep her well-loved office at Hüthig house. There are several links between the journals and SETAC: UWSF is the associated journal of SETAC Europe, German Language Branche (GLB) and Int J Life Cycle Assess is the associated journal of the UNEP/ SETAC Life Cycle Initiative. Many SETAC members serve as members of the editorial boards of the journals and/or act as reviewers. ESPR is the Official Organ of the EuCheMS Division for Chemistry and the Environment (EuCheMS DCE). As previously noted, to propose a Managing Editor for the “Education Award” is unusual, but so is Almut Heinrich’s work. The journals she created are the “scientific contributions” she accomplished in co-operation with her scientific editors, editorial board members, and thousands of authors and reviewers. In the very competitive world of publishing, these journals would not have survived without her inspiring ideas, her endurance, and an enormous workload that she maintained for more than a decade with minimal personal assistance. The journals form a “family” with clear stylistic similarities and belong to those journals that combine scientific contributions with debate and information on related items. In that way they have contributed to environmental education on a high level. For those of us who have had the privilege of working with Almut Beate Heinrich, we can truly say that we are in the presence of a “Master” in the knowledge and experience of publishing environmental science journals that have made worldwide contributions to improving the quality and sustainability of our global community! Congratulations Almut! We are very proud of you and honoured to be associated with you! Your Editors-in-Chief, Walter Klöpffer (Int J Life Cycle Assess) • Alvin L. Young (Environ Sci Pollut Res) • Henner Hollert (Umweltwiss Schadst Forsch) • Ulrich Förstner (J Soils Sediments, Area Sediments) • Wim Salomons (J Soils Sediments, Area Intercompartment) • Zhihong Xu (J Soils Sediments, Area Soils) Int J Life Cycle Assess (2008) 13:287–289 Response from Almut B. Heinrich to Walter Klöpffer, Editor-in-Chief of Int J Life Cycle Assess and Recipient of the SETAC Europe LCA Award Senior 2008 Dear Walter, You have created a wonderful name for the two of us: DREAM TEAM. And it is true! Our joint cooperation/career began in 1984 with SpringerVerlag, where you published your first book ‘Introduction to Polymer Spectroscopy’ under my ‘umbrella’ as Product Manager. We did not know it then, but this joint work on your book was the procreation of Int J Life Cycle Assess. From ‘Polymer Spectroscopy’ to ‘Life Cycle Assessment’: Indeed, ‘Physical Chemistry’ was your ‘native’ field (KarlFranzens-University of Graz, Austria), and ‘Spectroscopy and Photophysics of Aromatic Polymers and Monomeric Model Compounds’ became your main field (Battelle). But then (C.A.U.) you were strongly attracted by the renaissance of the international interest in persistent organic pollutants which induced a revival of research on exposure modeling and the application of the precautionary principle to the assessment of organic chemicals. Our bell, the bell of Int J Life Cycle Assess, rang. Jointly with our outstanding Editorial Board, Subjects Editors and Associate Subject Editors, we have implanted a number of milestones from the first volume in 1996 to the current thirteenth volume in 2008: & The increase from four to six issues per year, which proved to be necessary already in 1998 (with Vol. 3), and from six to seven editions in 2007 (up from Vol. 12); & the introduction of the OnlineFirst publication in 1998, which provides the great opportunity of citing the papers immediately after acceptance, i.e. prior to their appearance in the printed journal; & electronic archive of full papers since1998; 289 & coverage by ISI Science Citation Index in January 2001, up from Vol. 6; & start of the LCM section in January 2003 (Vol. 8); & the association of the journal with the UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative in March 2003, up from Vol. 8, No. 2; & the first impact factor published in 2004 (ISI needs three years to calculate an Impact Factor). In the course of 2004, we began to establish a framework of subject areas and associated subject editors (an open-end process) to develop and deepen specific areas as there are so far: & Data availability, data quality in LCA & Uncertainties in LCA & Societal LCA & LCA for agriculture & LCIA of impacts on human health and ecosystems & LCA for energy systems and food products & Land use in LCA & EU life cycle policy and support & Life cycle management (LCM) & Wood and other renewable resources & Input-output and hybrid LCA You have been praised as architect of ‘Life Cycle Assessment’ and as the ‘quintessential definition of an Editor’, see the congratulations on your birthday [Int J Life Cycle Assess 13 (3) 177 (2008)]. Walter, you accompanied me from Springer-Verlag to ecomed publishers, in order to found Int J Life Cycle Assessment, and now back to Springer-Verlag, in order to further tailor the journal align the challenging developments in the area of LCA. You have always been a wonderful companion to me, we respect, appreciate and like each other, and this is a solid basis for our further fruitful cooperation in many years to come. The granting of the SETAC Europe Award (in LCA to you and in Environmental Education to me) in the same year is the coronation of our joint work – so far. Almut