Ryan Sills Assumes Journal of Materials Science: Materials Theory Editorship

With the new year, Ryan Sills, an assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, has become the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Materials Science: Materials Theory. 

Formerly named Materials Theory, the relaunched open access Journal of Materials Science: Materials Theory joins Springer Nature’s Journal of Materials Science family, which includes the Journal of Materials Science; the Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Medicine; and the Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics.  

Sills, who has been a member of the editorial board of the five-year-old publication for the past year and who has also edited two of its Special Collections is charged with expanding its impact on the materials science community. 

“It’s a great honor and a big responsibility. Growing the journal will be a challenge I am looking forward to taking on,” he says. “I hope to develop it into an essential resource for the materials science community.” 

With his staff of five associate editors and 14 editorial board members, Sills hopes to reach an initial goal of publishing about 30 articles per year – and growing from there. 

“We have a unique position as the only theory-centric academic journal in the materials science literature,” explains. “So, the main idea is to make the journal a major resource for the community and a nexus for materials-theory-based research.” 

Increasing the journal’s impact on and responsiveness to the materials science community, Sills says, is his “most important job.” 

To do this, he plans to expand the topics that are covered with targeted Special Collections and to increase the technical breadth of the editorial board.