Editorial

This year marks the silver jubilee of Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance. As JMEP’s editor, I am privileged to briefly revisit the journal’s history, take stock of its present status, and share our vision for the future with our readers, authors, and all stakeholders.

JMEP was first published under its current title in 1992 in response to a comprehensive survey two years earlier of the readers and authors of ASM’s three journals at that time, Journal of Heat Treating, Journal of Materials Shaping Technology (previously Journal of Applied Metalworking), and Journal of Materials Engineering (formerly Journal of Materials for Energy Systems). According to the then publisher, William W. Scott, Jr., “We learned of your critical need for information you can use to solve specific design problems,” and as a result merged the three journals to develop an “engineering applications journal with a broad scope that will address all of the areas that are important to you in your work.”

While JMEP has remained true to its original vision to become a broad-based engineering applications journal that offers technical information to solve specific design problems, it has also kept pace with new developments, shifting interests, and emerging paradigms in the materials world. With nearly three thousand submissions a year on diverse materials topics and with about six hundred published manuscripts spanning twelve issues each year, JMEP is seeing unprecedented growth. The journal shall continue to expand its topical coverage to cater to the publication needs of our domestic and international authors and the applied research needs of our industrial customers in aerospace, automotive, nuclear, renewable energy, medical device, and various other sectors worldwide.

I would be remiss in not apprising our readers of some significant developments in the JMEP family. The Journal editors and staff are honored to congratulate Dr. William Frazier on his elevation to Vice President of ASM International. Bill has served ASM in a variety of leadership roles including Trustee. The JMEP family has been fortunate for the opportunity to leverage Bill’s knowledge and expertise to position the journal for ASM’s strategic vision and goals. Over the last several years in his role as an Associate Editor, Bill contributed to the journal’s growth not only by expert handling of submissions for review but also by providing sound counsel and insight relative to scope, quality, standardization issues, databases, and various other matters of importance to the journal. We wish Bill continued success and still higher levels of achievement and performance.

Another development has been expansion of JMEP’s editorial team to include six associate editors. This has enabled us to extend the range of materials topics that JMEP covers and to process the substantially increased submission volume without compromising either the turnaround time or the publication quality. We are delighted to welcome Dr. Elvin Beach, Dr. Jeffrey Waldman, and Dr. Sergiy Kalnaus as our newest Associate Editors. They join the ranks of Dr. Bill Frazier, Dr. Omar Es-said, and Dr. P.R. Subramanian, all of whom provide excellent service-leadership to JMEP as Associate Editors.

Elvin is a Senior Scientist with Corporate Materials Laboratory of Worthington Industries in Columbus, OH. He joined the JMEP team in June 2014. With a Ph.D. in materials engineering from the Ohio State University and work experience with Battelle, Owens Corning, Dow Chemical, and IBM, Elvin brings a broad research-intensive background in physical metallurgy, failure analysis, materials characterization, mechanical testing, and related areas. He is also an associate editor for ASM’s Metallography, Microstructure, and Analysis journal.

Jeff is a Senior Materials Engineer with Navmar Applied Sciences Corp., Warminster, PA. With a Sc.D. in metallurgy from MIT and forty-eight years of R&D experience with the Department of Defense including leadership roles as Program Manager and Branch Chief, Jeff’s technical interests cover aluminum, titanium, high-strength steels, ceramic- and intermetallic-matrix composites, and environmentally compliant materials and processes. Jeff was an originator and chair of the Aeromat conference series, and a U.S. National Coordinator for NATO materials panels.

Sergiy is a Research Scientist with Oak Ridge National Laboratory at Oak Ridge, TN. With a Ph.D in mechanical engineering from University of Nevada, Reno, NV, and with several years post-doctoral research experience at Oak Ridge prior to his current position as a Research Scientist, Sergiy’s technical interests span multi-physics modeling, corrosion and material degradation, energy storage, composite electrolytes, mechanical behavior, Li-ion batteries, and diffusion-stress coupling in materials systems.

The JMEP editors, reviewers, and authors continue to receive excellent professional support and help from ASM’s publication staff chiefly Mary Anne Fleming, Senior Content Developer, Journals; Diane Whitelaw, Production Coordinator; Scott Henry, Director, Content and Knowledge Based Solutions; Ann Britton, Associate Product Manager, Journals & eMedia; and Emily Glorioso, Administrator, Journals & eMedia. Thanks are due also to current and past JMEP Committee Officers; quality, scope, and standardization subgroups and their leaders; previous editors; and all Committee members many of whom also review submissions for JMEP. A special note of appreciation is due to JMEP’s owners—authors and reviewers—whose voluntary services to the professional community are appreciated.

As we bring out JMEP’s 25th volume this year, we invite all our stakeholders—readers, authors, reviewers, and everyone interested in the materials world—to support us in our renewed commitment to quality and relevance. JMEP shall continue on its path forward with a focus on relationships among processing, fabrication, microstructure, engineering properties, and industrial performance to maintain currency and relevance to the materials community.

Season’s Greetings and Best Wishes for the New Year!