Farewell

I am pleased to welcome Paul M. Davis, Professor of Geophysics at the University of California, Los Angeles, as the new Senior Editor of the Journal of Geophysical Research‐Solid Earth for a 4‐year term commencing January 1,1997. Dr. Davis is a world renowned seismologist who brings a broad geophysical background to his new duties. I am especially pleased because I am convinced that he is dedicated to improving the quality and readability of our journal and in maximizing its service to the geophysical research community. My 5 years at the helm of JGR‐Solid Earth have been much more enjoyable and rewarding than I anticipated. The task has been eased by an extremely competent, dedicated, and forgiving office staff, Deborah Gray, Melanie King, and Lois Gast; by an encouraging group of colleagues and the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Purdue University; by cooperative co workers in the AGU office; and by a superb cadre of referees and Associate Editors. The Associate Editors have done an outstanding job of maintaining the quality of our journal. The tasks they perform are time‐consuming and thus have taken valuable professional time that could have been spent on more professionally visible activities. I thank all those who served, but I especially want to recognize the following geophysicists who have acted as Associate Editors in 1996. I thank them for the time devoted to the journal and for the uniformly high quality of editing.