ChemEd X Hires a new Editor-in-Chief

Hello! My name is Jack Barbera, I am a Chemistry Education Research professor at Portland State University in Portland Oregon and the new Editor-in-Chief (EiC) of the Chemical Education Xchange (ChemEd X). I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself and what I hope to bring to ChemEd X as its newest EiC.

Before doing so, I want to acknowledge Jon Holmes for his service. As EiC, Jon established ChemEd X in 2012 and has worked with many editorial team and community members to develop and grow the platform to where it is today. Together, Jon and these members have built a community resource where chemistry instructors at all levels can Xchange their ideas in a welcoming space and Xplore new ideas to bring to their classrooms. Without their passion, time, and dedication to teaching chemistry ChemEd X would not exist. A heartfelt THANK YOU goes out to Jon and all of the ChemEd X editorial team and community members who have gotten us to where we are today.

A bit about me and how I got here. As a doctoral student at the University of Colorado, I worked with the PhET Interactive Simulations project (phet.colorado.edu) during its early years. Taking part in the development of many of the first chemistry-focused learning simulations provided me insight to the power and benefits of freely shared educational resources. As a Chemistry Education Researcher, I went on to build a career that focused on the development and evaluation of assessment tools, publishing my group’s work so that others could make use of the tools we developed. In collaboration with two colleagues, we created the CHemistry Instrument Review and Assessment Library (CHIRAL), which has been hosted on the ChemEd X server since 2022 (chiral.chemedx.org). CHIRAL is a free chemistry community resource where users can search for and learn about 600+ assessment instruments that have been used in our field.

As I transition into the ChemEd X EiC role what can you expect from me?

First and foremost, I plan to continue supporting our vibrant and very active high school community. Led by our High School Editor, Erica Posthuma, the ChemEd X high school editorial team includes 5 Associate Editors and 8 Lead Contributors.

During the next few years, a primary goal of mine is to build an equally impressive higher education editorial team, starting with hiring a Higher Education Editor in early 2026 and working alongside them to establish the initial editorial team.

If you think you might be interested in joining the higher education team at ChemEd X, please reach out (eic@chemedx.org), I’d be glad to discuss the various team roles.

Once the new team is in place, I hope to work with both Editors on reaching out to the high school and higher education communities to gauge their thoughts and priorities for continuing to grow ChemEd X.

Lastly, I want to thank the ACS Board of Publications for entrusting me with leading ChemEd X into the future.