The environmental science and technology fields are evolving rapidly. New insights on impacts, fate and transport of contaminants, novel treatment techniques for their removal as well as innovations in their measurement and analyses are being developed at a rapid speed. Scientists and engineers can hardly keep up pace with the whirlwind of science and technology advances. To help colleagues get a quick snapshot of what is happening in a diversity of areas, we encourage you to submit a mini-review to inform our readers of the latest progress in your particular niche of the environmental science and technology arena.

The journal ‘‘Reviews in Environmental Science and Bio/technology’’ (RESB) publishes Mini-reviews, alongside with comprehensive literature reviews. The Mini-reviews, which consist of 4–8 pages of printed text, provide a unique opportunity to prospective authors to publish short, critical reviews on well defined topics related to ground breaking discoveries or developments in the rapidly evolving, multidisciplinary field of environmental science and technology. The fields covered in the journal comprise effects, treatment and management of environmental pollutants, including chemical compounds and biological agents. Contributions concerned with pollutants of solid waste or contamination of the different environmental compartments, i.e., water and wastewater, soil and sediments, and air, are all within the scope of the journal. RESB and the RESB Mini-review section are an excellent reference material for engineers, scientists and professionals active in the field of environmental science and technology.

As the Mini-review Editor, I would like to invite prospective authors to contribute mini-review articles to be considered for publication on topics within the scope of the journal. We are especially interested in the latest developments in several new and exciting research fields that have the publics’ interest. These include, but are not limited to:

  • Environmental implications of nanotechnology:

    • Applications of nanotechnology and nanomaterials in the environmental field (e.g., sensors, nano-sorbents, nano-engineered membranes).

    • Ecological and public health effects, environmental fate and behaviour of engineered nanomaterials, new methodologies to characterize nanomaterials.

  • Global water problems and new approaches to water reclamation and water reuse.

  • Perfluorinated compounds and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs): effects, environmental fate, and treatment processes.

  • Greenhouse gas emissions and abatement from biological systems.

I am confident that RESB will continue to be a key resource to provide readers with a better understanding of the environmental challenges faced by our society, and of the steps taken by the scientific community to develop innovative approaches to face those challenges.