Achim Richter Replaces George Bertsch as Editor of Reviews of Modern Physics

Achim Richter

Editors in charge of APS journals have, until now, always been based at institutions in the United States. With authorship and readership of these journals becoming increasingly international, APS has appointed the first editor of one of its journals who is based abroad.

Taking over in January as the new editor of Reviews of Modern Physics will be Achim Richter, Professor at the Technische Universität, Darmstadt. He will succeed George Bertsch of the University of Washington.

Commenting on this move, APS Editor-in-Chief Martin Blume said, "We are very pleased to have attracted Professor Richter, a physicist of great accomplishment, to the position. Now that our editorial processes are completely electronic it is possible and efficient to have editors in any part of the world, and it is very appropriate for our highly international journals to have a senior editor based in Germany. We look forward to the continuation, under Professor Richter’s leadership, of the outstanding journal that is Reviews of Modern Physics."

The 65-year-old Richter is a Fellow of APS. He has a distinguished record of research in several different areas, including nuclear reactions, nuclear structure, atomic physics, accelerator physics, and non-linear dynamics. He has been a professor at Darmstadt since 1974. As editor, he will be responsible for editorial standards, policies, and direction of the journal, and leadership of a board of associate editors.

Bertsch is retiring after 10 years as editor of RMP. "George Bertsch has served with distinction, wisdom and great energy," said Blume, "and he leaves RMP in a secure and enviable position. We were fortunate to have a number of excellent candidates for his replacement, and are grateful to the RMP search committee for undertaking the difficult task of making a final recommendation."

The chair of the RMP search committee was Robert Siemann of SLAC.