Dr Suzy Lidström has been announced as the new Editor-in-Chief of Physica Scripta, a leading international journal for experimental and theoretical physics.
Dr Lidström is currently self-employed, working with Swedish researchers on their publications. She undertakes a range of tasks from proofreading and copy-editing through to assisting with funding applications.
She has a degree in physics with applied physics from Sussex University, UK and a PhD from Uppsala University, Sweden, where she studied the diffusion of particles in metals. The department used nuclear techniques, such as muon spin rotation spectroscopy, to study solid state phenomena. Experiments were conducted at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, CERN and TRIUMF.
At Uppsala University, Dr Lidström worked with Professor Roger Wäppling, the outgoing Editor-in-Chief of Physica Scripta. In the past she worked as an Editor at Shell Research on a wide variety of subjects, from engineering and pure physics to safety-related research and oil extraction.
Dr Lidström’s research and business experience makes her a natural fit to lead Physica Scripta. She also brings to the journal a tremendous enthusiasm for the public understanding of science.
Dr Lidström said of her appointment: “I am very much looking forward to starting in my new role and working with the Physica Scripta editorial board and publishing staff. The journal has grown significantly under Professor Wäppling’s leadership and so I have a difficult but exciting challenge ahead of me – to maintain Physica Scripta’s reputation and to augment it.”
Professor Wäppling will officially hand over his role to Dr Lidström in February 2012 but will continue to act as consultant to the editorial board for the next few months. Professor Wäppling has done an impressive job of taking the journal forward over the past 15 years, particularly in helping to grow its levels of submissions, which increased by 20% between 2010 and 2011.
Professor Wäppling said “Working with Physica Scripta as Editor-in-Chief for the past 15 years and as Scientific Advisor for 10 years prior to that has been a real honour. I was particularly pleased to celebrate the journal’s 40th anniversary last year and work with the Nobel Foundation to publish the biographies of the 2010 Nobel Prize laureates.”
Two editorials from Professor Wäppling and Dr Lidström will be published in the March and April issues of Physica Scripta.
