Editorial

After 12 years of distinguished service, Kaushik Bhattacharya has decided to step down as co-editor of the Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids. A new editorial team, with Huajian Gao as editor and Basile Audoly, Pedro Ponte Castañeda, Ellen Kuhl, Christian Niordson and Pradeep Sharma as Associate Editors, will take over as of January 1, 2016. We would like to express the immense gratitude of our community to Kaushik for his effective and visionary guidance of the Journal during the past 12 years. He oversaw a period of major growth in the number of submissions and a revamping of the editorial board for the Journal. He wisely steered the Journal through a rapidly evolving research landscape with his personal dedication, fairness, scientific judgment and open-mindedness. While being an editor of JMPS, he maintained a prolific research activity and also took on significant leadership challenges at Caltech. We fully anticipate that Kaushik will continue to contribute to the journal, both as a researcher and as a senior editorial advisor. With the new editorial structure, we are aiming to handle more effectively the increasing number of submissions and to minimize the review time, while maintaining the high standards of the Journal and continuing with the same simple goal to disseminate research of the highest quality in the Mechanics and Physics of Solids.