eLife is pleased to announce the appointment of Nouria Hernandez, PhD, to its Board of Directors.
Hernandez, who is also the incoming president of the University of Lausanne, will work with the board to direct eLife in its aim to help scientists accelerate discovery by reshaping science publishing.
Hernandez says that she is “honoured” to be on board. “There is a massive and exciting transformation happening in the publication process and in the possibilities for life science researchers,” she explains.
“This raises important questions that need to be addressed, especially the idea that a scientist’s quality can be expressed as a number, be it an Impact Factor or another measure. Being on the eLife board will give me the opportunity to talk to people who have thought deeply about and are affected by these issues, and to contribute to an important experiment in innovative publishing.”
Toby Coppel, Chair of eLife’s Board of Directors, says: “Nouria’s experience in life science research and her support for our ambition to open up, accelerate and transform the communication of science make her an especially valuable addition to our board. Welcome, Dr Hernandez.”
Hernandez has more than 30 years’ experience working in the general field of gene expression, deciphering fundamental mechanisms of RNA transcription. She believes the next major development in the field will be to integrate the many layers that contribute to gene expression, from transcription to the production of functional proteins.
Adding to her strong commitments to her research and to eLife, Hernandez will also become the President of the University of Lausanne in summer this year, where she will be thinking of ways to push for excellence within the institution.
“This brings the immediate question of how you might define excellence, in all fields including the life sciences, and being a member of the eLife board will help me think more about this,” she explains.
“But for now,” she adds, “I am focused on learning a new trade: the trade of how to direct a public institution, funded by taxpayers, in a way that will continue to convince the taxpayers that they are making a great investment.”
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Emily Packer
eLife
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eLife is a unique collaboration between the funders and practitioners of research to improve the way important research is selected, presented and shared. eLife publishes outstanding works across the life sciences and biomedicine — from basic biological research to applied, translational, and clinical studies. All papers are selected by active scientists in the research community. Decisions and responses are agreed by the reviewers and consolidated by the Reviewing Editor into a single, clear set of instructions for authors, removing the need for laborious cycles of revision and allowing authors to publish their findings quickly. eLife is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Max Planck Society and the Wellcome Trust. Learn more at elifesciences.org.
