The 20th volume of Cellulose transitions to the third editor in its history. Founding Editor John C. Roberts served from 1994 until 2000, when Wolfgang Glasser took the helm and drove the journal for 13 years. Cellulose is now one of 2,000 journals published by Springer. Cellulose has grown from its first year that included 235 pages in four issues. Volume 19 will comprise almost 2000 pages more than that in its six issues for 2012. More important is the utility of Cellulose, with an impact factor of 3.60 for 2011. We owe a great deal to Professor Glasser for this growth.

Of course, processing that much information is a substantial effort for several people. The Associate Editors’ jobs have been recently recast, giving Professors Akira Isogai, Kevin Edgar, and Thomas Heinze more responsibility. The Editorial Board members have also had their shoulders to the wheel, serving both as reliable and authoritative reviewers and as contributors. The Editorial Board is renewed periodically, and there are some new faces starting with Volume 20. Many others serve as ad hoc anonymous reviewers to help carry out that most important function. Thank-you, thank-you.

Dr. Sonia Ojo, Springer’s Senior Publishing Editor has helped in many ways, including implementing some changes that Editor Glasser proposed for increased viability of the journal, as well as serving as the official point of interaction in the transition. I have also been working with Jabeena Begum, Production Editor in the Journals Production office. Kaushika Mahesh, Journals Editorial Office Assistant, has been helpful in many ways that deal with the nuts and bolts of “electronic paper” flow during my apprenticeship over the past few months. When you are contacted by the journal, you may only see their titles, but their efforts are important to all of us.

My name may be familiar to you as I have been studying polysaccharide structure for some 48 years. Among the articles in Volume 1 of Cellulose were papers authored by Professor Glasser and by me. One of my proudest moments was winning the 2010 Anselme Payen Award of the Division of Cellulose and Renewable Materials, American Chemical Society (ACS); Professor Glasser won the 2000 edition of that award as have Associate Editor Heinze and more than a half dozen current members of the Editorial Board. Other Editorial Board members have won the Cellulose Society of Japan’s Hayashi Medal for younger scientists.

As the year 2012 closes, I will finish as Chair of the Cellulose Division. This new job as Editor will more than fill what might have become a void in my schedule. I view editing Cellulose as another way to serve the community of scientists working on cellulose and other industrial polysaccharides. I look forward to becoming more familiar with other organizations that focus on cellulose and similar molecules. The Associate Editors and I hope to continue to enhance the journal, such as with the new Supplementary Information option and front-of-the-journal position of Communications. But most of all, I ask for your continued readership, your contributions of articles, and your absolutely necessary and deeply appreciated peer-review efforts.