October 19, 2015 | Erin Bluvas, bluvase@sc.edu 

Jamie Lead, a leader in the field of nanoscience, has been named one of four co-editors-in-chief for a brand new scientific journal, NanoImpact, which will be published by Elsevier. NanoImpact is an international, multidisciplinary journal that focuses on nanosafety research and the behavior and impact of manufactured nanomaterials on human and environmental systems.

Lead, who is a professor in the Arnold School’s Department of Environmental Health Sciences and the Director of the SmartState Center for Environmental NanoScience & Risk (CENR), was recruited to serve as an editor as a result of his expertise and leadership in the field. “NanoImpact is being developed because there is currently no journal that covers the areas of environmental fate and behavior, environmental toxicology, life cycle analysis and regulation of nanomaterials,” he says. “There is a substantial community researching in these important areas, and the publishers and editors have responded with this new journal.”

As researchers are beginning to realize the significance and scope of nanomaterial effects, the field requires an appropriate channel for the dissemination of high quality research. “Nanomaterials are important emerging contaminants for humans and the environment,” explains Lead. “We already know that nanomaterials can be toxic; if we can understand why they are harmful, we can gain their benefits without the attendant risks and hazards.”

With the first issue due in early 2016, NanoImpact publishes articles on original research, critical reviews and shorter discussion pieces. The journal will focus primarily on human nanotoxicology, nanoecotoxicology, environmental fate and behavior, risk assessment and life cycle assessment. “We’re hoping to become the first point of call for research and related activities in this area, publishing the most important and rigorous science,” Lead says.

Learn more and submit your paper here.