Kenneth Mayer, MD, has been appointed one of the editors-in-chief of the Journal of the International AIDS Society (JIAS). He joined the JIAS editorial board in 2016 and has coauthored more than 800 peer-reviewed publications, according to a press release from the International AIDS Society (IAS). Mayer is the founding medical research director of Boston’s Fenway Health, which provides health care, advocacy and education to the LGBT community. He is also a member of the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS (PEPFAR) and the IAS governing council.

IAS president Linda-Gail Bekker said she couldn’t imagine anyone else better suited to the role. “Ken is an extremely well-respected clinician and researcher who I have had the pleasure to work with for many years,” Bekker said in the press release. “Under his leadership, the high standards of the JIAS brand to publish quality research will continue to grow and develop.”

At Fenway Health, Mayer created a program that now has an international reputation for its capability to conduct community-based health research under the auspices of Fenway Institute. He is a professor at Harvard Medical School and attending physician and director of HIV prevention research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

In addition to his current roles, Mayer has been a principal investigator of several National Institutes of Health–funded HIV vaccine clinical trial units focused on biobehavioral HIV prevention research since 1994.

“As a longtime supporter of and contributor to JIAS, I take this appointment with great enthusiasm,” Mayer said. “I look forward to building upon its legacy and working with the team to expand the essential role that JIAS plays in promoting and disseminating HIV research.”

Mayer is filling the role of previous editor-in-chief Mark Wainberg,PhD, who died in April 2017. Mayer will be joining JIAS co–editors-in-chief Susan Kippax and Papa Salif Sow.

JIAS, one of the leading journals in the HIV field, ranks among the top 10 infectious diseases journals and 25 immunology journals and receives over 600 submissions per year.