Welcome to the 2013 volume

Welcome to 2013; another great year for technology in our journal, Smart Materials and Structures (SMS). Last year, SMS grew by some 11% while maintaining a high Impact Factor above 2 and a rejection rate of 60%. The Editorial Board and I are pleased with this outcome, as it's indicative of the relevance and vibrancy of SMS to our research community. SMS continues to have a leading role within our community of researchers in the field of smart materials and smart systems technology. As always the quality of SMS is something that the Editorial Board takes very seriously. I have instructed the Editorial Board and our reviewers to scrutinize manuscripts, not only for originality and contributions to the field of smart materials and structures, but to consider the potential impact on the technology. In addition, we are doing more to architect the content of our issues, creating a conduit for exciting developments, developing review topics, and publishing focus issues that cover current technological trends. We would like to promote SMS as a medium to accelerate the promotion of the latest technology. Toward this end, SMS has instituted the Fast Track Communication (FTC). FTCs are short, urgent announcements reporting new and timely developments in the field. They benefit from extra post-publication promotion and accelerated peer review. SMS also has a strong program of topical review articles. Many of us are professors, involved with the training of new researchers to our field, and the value of review articles to education and training cannot be overstated. Such articles allow a reader to 'get up to speed' quickly in a new area, whether they be new graduate students or seasoned technologists deciphering what smart materials has to offer a particular application. Review topics are considered by me and the Editorial Board for content. If approved, SMS will commission a writer to prepare the article for which they will receive a fee in appreciation for the service they have done the community. In 2012, we published 'A review on structural enhancement and repair using piezoelectric materials and shape memory alloys' by Quan Wang and Nan Wu, University of Manitoba; 'A review of stimuli-responsive polymers for smart textile applications' by Jinlian Hu et al, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Southern University, USA; and 'Hair flow sensors: from bioinspiration to bio-mimicking—a review' by Junliang Tao et al, Case Western Reserve University. The third approach we take to serve our readership is the development of special issues. Special issues contain a selected collection of papers from specific conferences of particular importance to our readers. Additionally, we publish focus issues, which consist of a collection of invited research papers to provide a timely snap shot of the state of the art of a particularly relevant topic. This, the first issue of 2013, features a focus issue called 'Bioinspired smart materials and systems'. My co-Editors for this were Dr Rashi Tiwari of Dow Chemical Company and Dr Matthew Bryant of Cornell University. Nature is the ultimate builder of machines. The simplest of organisms utilize atomic scale engineering to build systems from fundamental chemistry into tissue with functional gradation to alter properties, integrated with electrical, chemical and mechanical capabilities. These living systems scavenge energy from their environs, are self-programming and adaptive, are capable of self-replication and evolve over generations perpetuating their species over time. As engineers and materials scientists, our greatest achievements to date are at best primitive by comparison. Yet, as a source of inspiration, there are lessons to be learned from which we can gather insight. While often beautiful to observe and mimic superficially, much more substantive technological gains can be achieved by developing an understanding of the complex ways living organisms interact with and manipulate their environments. It is at this distinction between bio-mimicry and bioinspiration where engineers can learn and gain the most from nature. Taking advantage of bioinspiration requires us to utilize models, design techniques, transducers, and structures beyond what conventional, uni-disciplinary engineering practice has offered. The unique properties of smart materials can allow us to create multirole sensing, actuation, energy conversion and structural elements that enable these bioinspired systems. In this focus issue, we are pleased to present a broad collection of original research papers that embody the concept of bioinspired smart materials and systems. The topics of these papers span from bioinspired locomotion architectures such as in micro-robots, to muscle-inspired actuation technologies, and to sensor designs motivated by the functionality of sensory organs of fish and marine mammals. Others offer designs for energy harvesting mechanisms based on the structure of hair bundles, damage monitoring systems that mimic the human nervous system, filtration systems that selectively capture and transport water pollutants and material surface properties akin to the superhydrophobic lotus leaf. It is our hope that the broad range of topics and applications under consideration reflect the diversity of nature and the myriad of technical approaches that can be derived by considering biological design inspiration. We hope our readers enjoy this collection. Finally, I would like to thank my wonderful Editorial Board for their great work in ensuring and constantly improving the quality of SMS. The Board serves not only to advise the Editor-in-Chief but actively participates in the paper review process as Associate Editors, overseeing and reviewing articles as well. We welcome Professor Yanju Liu (Harbin Institute of Technology, China) and Professor Daihua Wang (Chongqing University, China) who have recently joined the Board. We also acknowledge the hard work and dedicated service of Professor Derek Abbott, Professor Alison Flatau, Professor Jinsong Leng and Professor Yuji Matsuzaki who have retired from the Board. Professor Matsuzaki worked on the journal for almost two decades. Associate Editors Professor G Akhras, Royal Military College of Canada, Ontario, Canada Professor C Boller, University of Saarland, Saarbrucken, Germany; Fraunhofer-Institut fur Zerstorungsfreie Prufverfahren, Dresden, Germany Professor Cagnol, Ecole Centrale Paris, France Professor G Carman, University of California–Los Angeles, USA Professor S-B Choi, Inha University, Incheon, Korea Professor S H Choi, NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, USA Professor A Del Grosso, Universita degli Studi di Genova, Italy Professor D Erickson, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA Professor U Gabbert, Universitat Magdeburg, Germany Professor A Guemes, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Spain Professor S Gopalakrishnan, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India Professor J Kim, Inha University, Incheon, Korea Professor K J Kim, University of Nevada, Reno, USA Professor S J Kim, Seoul National University, Korea Professor D Lagoudas, Texas A&M University, College Station, USA Professor R Lammering, Helmut-Schmidt-Universitat/Universitat der Bundeswehr Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany Professor C K Lee, National Taiwan University, Taiwan Professor W Li, University of Wollongong, Australia Professor W H Liao, Chinese University of Hong Kong, China Professor Y Liu, Harbin Institute of Technology, China Professor C S Lynch, University of California–Los Angeles, USA Professor S Masri, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA Professor W M Ostachowicz, Polish Academy of Sciences, Gdansk, Poland Professor K Peters, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, USA Professor M Shahinpoor, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, USA Professor H Sodano, Arizona State University, Tempe, USA Professor G Song, University of Houston, TX, USA Professor W J Staszewski, AGH University of Science and Technology, Krakow, Poland Professor N Takeda, University of Tokyo, Japan Professor D-H Wang, Chongqing University, China Professor Q Wang, University of Manitoba, Canada Professor N M Wereley, University of Maryland, College Park, USA Professor W J Wu, National Taiwan University, Taiwan We will continue to engage our community of researchers and encourage the development of new smart materials and structural systems and devices that rely on new and exciting, controllable electro-active elements.