We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. David Lopez-Carr has been appointed as the Founding Editor-in-Chief of Populations (ISSN: 3042-4372).

Homepage: www.geog.ucsb.edu/~carr/
Affiliation: Department of Geography, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 94607, USA
Interests: population; environment; human-environment dynamics; land use/cover change; climate; vulnerability; resilience; livelihoods; planetary health; migration; protected areas

Prof. Dr. David López-Carr is a Professor of geography at the University of California, Santa Barbara, USA, where he directs the Human–Environment Dynamics Lab (HED). Prof. Dr. López-Carr received his Ph.D. in geography from the University of North Carolina in 2002, where he subsequently held an NIH post-doctoral fellowship in biostatistics at the School of Public Health and Carolina Population Center. He has lived, worked, and traveled in over 70 countries worldwide and speaks Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, and rudimentary Q’eqchí Maya.

Prof. Dr. López-Carr uses mixed methods to examine potential win–win outcomes for people and the environment. His research specifically focuses on the links among population, health, rural livelihoods, agriculture, and marine and forest resource use and conservation through ongoing projects in California, Latin America, Africa, and Asia. He has authored over 200 scientific publications. His scholarship has been conducted alongside colleagues and students thanks to funding from over 50 fellowships, grants, and awards from NASA, NOAA, NSF, NIH, the Mellon and Fulbright Foundations, and numerous other sources.

Prof. Dr. López-Carr was awarded the Research Excellence Award from both the Population Specialty Group and the Human Dimensions of Global Change Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers (AAG). He was also presented with the AAG Excellence in Mentoring Award and the Conference of Latin American Geography Teaching Award. Named a National Academy of Sciences Kavli Frontiers of Science Fellow in 2013, in 2014 he was elected an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow “for advancing our scientific understanding of the coupled process of human population dynamics and environmental change”.

The following is a short Q&A with Prof. Dr. David Lopez-Carr, who shared his vision for the journal with us, as well as his views of the area and open access publishing:

1. What appealed to you about the journal that made you want to take the role of its Editor-in-Chief?
I am most excited about the potential for Populations to fill a gap in the existing suite of population journals by embracing research on population links to society, the economy, and the environment.

2. What is your vision for the journal?
Towards filling the gap mentioned above, my vision for the journal is to promote the highest quality innovative research on population dynamics and links to socio-economic and environmental challenges and solutions.

3. What does the future of this field of research look like?
Consonant with this vision, I believe that the future of research lies in integration, and that in demography, a particular opportunity exists to catalyze interdisciplinary research.

4. What do you think of the development of open access in the publishing field?
Open access is an important trend in publishing that enables more efficient and equitable publishing and the dissemination of scholarships.