Starting in 2010, Motivation and Emotion became the official journal of the Society for the Study of Motivation (SSM). Our now 3-year relationship has been one of synergy, as together we promote high-quality, rigorous empirical work on motivational and emotional processes. The new year brings Motivation and Emotion and the Society closer together, as the journal introduces the new annual feature of publishing the SSM presidential address.

For both the 3rd and 4th conferences in 2010 and 2011, Larry C. Bernard hosted a Presidential Symposium. Given the success of these symposia, the decision was made to transition the presidential symposium into a presidential address. Richard M. Sorrentino delivered the first SSM presidential address on May 24, 2012 in Chicago, IL at the 5th annual conference. His presidential address, “Looking for B = f(P, E): The exception still forms the rule”, appears in the present issue of the journal. It represents the first in what will become an annual feature of the journal. In May 2013, Rex A. Wright will deliver this year’s presidential address in Washington, DC, and his paper will appear in the first issue of 2014.

Last year, our field lost a dear friend and devoted colleague. Alice M. Isen was the second editor of Motivation and Emotion, serving from volume 13 (1989) to volume 29 (2005). Her own world-class research centered on how positive affect influences cognitive processes and social interaction. She was a professor of psychology and the S. C. Johnson Professor of Marketing at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. A series of recollections of her life is being collected and will appear in the Remembrances section of the APS Observer. Here is a link to the Observer’s remembrances page in which her recollections will soon appear: http://www.psychologicalscience.org/?s=Remembrances.