In September 1999, with a joint effort between the University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia and the IFRF NET Communications Centre at IJmuiden in the Netherlands, the first ONLINE Journal concerned with Research and Development related to industrial combustion was founded.

Founding Editor-in-Chief Terry Wall

Editor-in-Chief, Professor Terry Wall initially stated that: ”The prime objective of the Journal is to further the application of scientific principles in stationary combustion technologies, for large scale industrial heating processes, leading to clean and efficient fuel conversion.”

The Journal has been steadily growing in stature during its first Triennial, due particularly to the efforts of Terry and his Editorial Group at Newcastle. Furthermore the Joint Committee (JC) confirmed the continued commitment of the IFRF to the production of the Journal, during its 145th JC Meeting in March 2002.

The task of editing the Journal does not only consume considerable effort but it is of course also a voluntary activity. Consequently it was generally agreed that the period for which the task should be undertaken should be fixed. Therefore, in Journal management discussions in late summer 2001, it was agreed that during 2002, the task of Editor-in-Chief would be handed over to a “yet-to-be-agreed” successor.

Vice President Mikko Hupa was delegated by the Joint Committee to identify a successor. Professor Hupa, working with Professors Terry Wall and Klaus Hein, and this writer, reviewed the various possibilities. At the beginning of this month an agreement was reached.

We are happy to announce that the new Editor-in-Chief of the IFRF Online Combustion Journal will be Patrick Hughes of CANMET Energy Technology Centre, based in Ottawa Canada. He has agreed to set up an Editorial Team in Ottawa and to co-operate with the outgoing team in Newcastle with a view to making a seamless handover.

Editor-in-Chief elect Patrick Hughes

Pat Hughes is the latest of a line of very strong IFRF co-operators, going back several decades, including among many others, George Lee and Horace Whaley.

Pat is the leader of the Kinetics and Measurement Group of the Advanced Combustion Technologies Department at the CANMET Energy Technology Centre.

He himself is personally very well qualified for the task of Editor-in-Chief, but his particular advantage is the depth of experience in all aspects of combustion which is available to him through his colleagues among the Group Leaders team at the Energy Technology Centre.

The IFRF Communications Centre will continue to be responsible for the production of the Journal. But there are changes here too, with the departure of Aristide Mbiock, who has undertaken the actual publishing task with great effect during the last three years. We are completing the planning right now.

Åbo Akademi is also part of the international publication team with Edgardo Coda Zabetta undertaking the task of graphics editorial advisor.

We are talking presently with all concerned with the aim to complete an agreement with respect to the publication procedures with the new team.

When these arrangements are complete they will be posted on the Journal website and the publication of new articles will recommence shortly.

For the moment, we at the Communications Centre, must say that we have had an excellent working relationship with Terry and his team in Newcastle and we look forward to developing a similar relationship with Pat and his colleagues.