The next editor-in-chief of the Science family of journals was announced on August 20, by the Board of Directors of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The appointee is Holden Thorp, formerly provost at Washington University in St. Louis.

“I’m excited and awed to be the next editor-in-chief of the Science family of journals,” said Thorp. “This is a critically important time, when we have such pressing challenges in the world, to demonstrate the wonder of science and to advocate for the ideals of evidence, reproducibility and scientific reasoning.”

Thorp’s interdisciplinary background will be useful in managing the wide variety of science and engineering peer-reviewed research that Science publishes. His experience ranges from physical inorganic chemistry in his earliest days to efforts in drug development in later years.

As editor-in-chief he will focus on increasing the reproducibility of scientific research and ensure that researchers around the world know about the Science family of journals. Thorp will oversee both the journal’s staff of Ph.D.-level editors and Science’s award-winning team of science journalists. Science’s editors and news reporters work in Washington, D.C., Cambridge, U.K., and other locations worldwide, from China and Japan to Europe and Africa.