Dr James Milne, Business Developer at Elsevier B.V., has been announced as the new editorial director for the Royal Society of Chemistry's world renowned Publishing Division. Dr Milne will take up the role, based at the RSC's offices on the Cambridge Science Park, on 5 May. He said: "I am very excited to be joining RSC Publishing, with the distinct opportunities and unique challenges in developing further the RSC portfolio." 

Born and educated in Edinburgh, Dr Milne started his publishing career at Pergamon Press in 1992, (which later became Elsevier) managing a portfolio of engineering books and journals. He went on to develop new media products before, in 2001, heading up the organic and inorganic chemistry portfolio. Among developments with the Tetrahedron journals, Dr Milne initiated the annual Tetrahedron Symposium series, leading most recently to responsibility for the development of Elsevier's virtual conference activities. 

Innovations relating to the dissemination of information are clearly core to Dr Milne's career. He continues: "The RSC is exceptionally well placed to work in partnership with the scientific communities and information specialists worldwide, to further improve the way individuals access, utilise and publish scientific information to advance the chemical sciences. New functionalities and services made possible from recent technological advances are able to help researchers in their day-to-day information workflow; the RSC's Project Prospect is a glowing example of this." 

Pictured here in a photograph taken by his youngest daughter Emma (10), Dr Milne and his family have already started preparations for the move. During a recent visit to Cambridge, the family, Helen, Laura (12) and Emma, took a break from house-hunting and enjoyed the obligatory punt on the river Cam.