With the change of Editor, and the movement of the Editorial office to Antwerp, the Society will be losing one of its most loyal members of staff.

Jane was responsible for the entire working of the Editorial Office. Manuscripts arrive from all over the world. Originally, the manuscripts would arrive by post but over the past year or so they have arrived electronically. Jane was responsible for checking the quality of the manuscripts and beginning the peer review process. This included not only communicating electronically with scientists and doctors, but also by telephone. This meant that Jane had to do a lot of telephoning to North and South America, Australia, New Zealand, countries within Europe and in the Far East.

My scientific and publishing colleagues have told me repeatedly what a delightful manner she had on the telephone and she had built up a very good rapport with them.

In addition, she had to help with drawing up the print run for the Journal and to help to prepare the Editors report to the Editorial Board of ISCoS, to the Executive Committee and to Council as well as to the Membership.

The last couple of years were particularly difficult for her: not only was the Journal changing to EJP (the electronic form of publishing), but the senior member of the Editorial Office, while abroad, was taken ill and was flown home as an emergency and subsequently had five operations. Jane carried on the work of the office: during this time, the Citation Index progressively improved, the number of manuscripts processed increased enormously and the Journal published an increasing amount of experimental work.

I am sure that all Members would like me to thank Jane wholeheartedly for what she has contributed to the Journal.