As the journal of Materials and Structures enters its 45th year it gives us reason to pause and think about the foundations that the journal is based on and to look forward to what the journal espouses to be. RILEM began in 1947 when Robert L’Hermite called a meeting of laboratory directors from fifteen different nations with a goal of renewing international relations that had been interrupted by the war. Looking back, this meeting was obviously very fruitful as it started a process that would bring collaborators together to define a structure that would serve to provide international cooperation between institutions for testing and research on materials and structures that continues to this day. Beginning in 1951 with the publication of the first bulletin, the ability gather, produce and disseminate useful information in published form has been at the forefront of the mission of RILEM. Providing researchers with increased opportunity to share information on complex material systems led to the launching of the Materials and Structures journal in 1968. While Materials and Structures has brought about numerous innovations in the contents of its pages, the journal itself has itself has innovated and changed becoming registered online through DOI (RILEM Publications is a CrossRef Member) in 2004 and teaming with Springer in 2006 to expand its visibility, reach, and services to members. Today Materials and Structures is more relevant than ever and thriving with rapidly increasing numbers of paper submissions and rapidly increasing references to journal papers within its pages.

While we reflect on the history of Materials and Structures this anniversary gives us an opportunity to recognize all the people who make the journal successful. We can begin by thanking the team from Springer and the RILEM Secretariat General office who work tirelessly to process the paper submissions, coordinate their reviews, and to assembly each issue of the journal. Enormous thanks are due to the editorial board, technical committee chairs and expert reviewers all volunteer their time to perform the exceptional peer reviews that help maintain the high standards of the journal. The leadership of RILEM’s over the last decade through the MAC and TAC also deserves enormous thanks for their efforts to increase the visibility of the journal which led to the partnership with Springer. Finally we thank the authors who graciously trust Materials and Structures with their manuscripts and are willing to take their time to share their valuable ideas and findings with the community.

While it is important to reflect on the historical events that have occurred in the history of Materials and Structures, it is also important to look toward the future. As construction materials and their applications continue to become increasingly complex, there continues to be a need to share information and to tackle problems with global wisdom. With tightening budgets, globalization of construction, increasing considerations for sustainability and increasing technical challenges it is clear that the rapid transfer of useful knowledge is as important today as it was in 1968. Materials and Structures continues to strive to publish papers on high quality experimental research and tests pertaining to building materials and structures as well as analytical models that describe these systems. Materials and Structures strives to include papers that report on results from hypothesis driven, high level scientific research on construction materials and intends to continue to provide the platform for the exchange of ideas between international research that can lead to improved understanding while truly having a global impact.