AIP Publishing is pleased to announce the appointment of Kit Parker, Harvard University, as the Editor-in-Chief of Biophysics Reviews (BPR). BPR is a new AIP Publishing journal that will begin publishing later this year. It will provide comprehensive and authoritative reviews and original research in all areas of biophysics. Dr. Parker is the Tarr Family Professor of Bioengineering and Applied Physics at the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) at Harvard University, where he also directs the Disease Biophysics Group, a trans-disciplinary research lab.
“AIP Publishing is fortunate to enlist such an inspiring scientist and community leader as Kit Parker for the first Biophysics Reviews Editor-in-Chief,” said Jason Wilde, Ph.D., Chief Publishing Officer at AIP Publishing. “Kit’s remarkable life and innovative approach to biophysics will help to build a unique new journal that attracts significant research from around the world.”
Dr. Parker commented, “My vision for Biophysics Reviews is to develop a journal that reports the advances in biophysics, bio-inspired physics, and physics-inspired biology, and applied biology. The goal is to create a “big tent” strategy that opens the field to a broad range of topics where physicists have influenced biology and where biologists have influenced physics. The journal will publish work from scientists who have borrowed tools from both of these fields.”
At SEAS, Dr. Parker works with a group of artists, engineers, and scientists to focus on cardiac cell biology and tissue engineering, traumatic brain injury, and biological applications of micro- and nanotechnologies. Their current projects include developing nanofabrics for applications in tissue regeneration and creating organs-on-chips to address pediatric diseases such as asthma, muscular dystrophy, diabetes, brain injury, and congenital heart disease.
In addition, Dr. Parker is a Professor at the United States Military Academy at West Point and holds the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army Reserve. He served two tours of combat duty in Afghanistan in 2002 and 2008, for which he was awarded a Bronze Star and other honors. In 2011, he returned to Afghanistan twice as a member of a science advisory team assembled by the Joint Chiefs, to assess and report on issues pertaining to combat casualties and their care. Prior to his deployment, he earned an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering in 1993 and Ph.D. in Biological and Applied Physics in 1998 at Vanderbilt University.
The new journal will cover both fundamental science and applications in biophysics, medicine, engineering, and other branches of science. Its scope will include all areas of biophysics: biomechanics; biomaterials; biosensors and bioelectronics; bio- and tissue engineering and bioprinting; soft robotics; biomedical instrumentation and bioimaging; computational biology and genomics; and drug delivery.
BPR will follow the editorial model of Applied Physics Reviews, similar to Chemical Physics Reviews, another new journal announced earlier this year. An in-house team of scientific editors will support the Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board by ensuring that BPR’s published research is important and aligns with the journal’s scope.
AIP Publishing’s portfolio currently consists of 33 journals, including six open access titles, flagship titles Applied Physics Reviews, Applied Physics Letters, Journal of Applied Physics and The Journal of Chemical Physics, and Scilight, a weekly publication highlighting the most interesting new research in the physical sciences. Chemical Physics Reviews and Biophysics Reviews will publish their first articles in Fall 2020. AIP Publishing serves 10 scholarly societies, providing a full suite of publishing services, from manuscript submission to online hosting.