The Society is pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Dr Peter Kohl as the new Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of Physiology. Peter will succeed Professor Kim E. Barrett on 1 April 2022.
Peter studied Medicine and Biophysics at the Moscow Pirogov Institute (1981-1987) and, after post-graduate training and research at the Berlin Charité (PhD 1990, Facharzt 1991), he joined the Cardiac Electrophysiology Chair of Professor Denis Noble at Oxford (1992). In 1998, Peter set up the Oxford Cardiac Mechano-Electric Feedback lab, initially as a Royal Society Research Fellow, and subsequently as a Senior Fellow of the British Heart Foundation. While at Oxford, he held a Research Fellowship at Keble College (2002-2004) and was the Tutorial Fellow in Biomedical Sciences at Balliol (2004-2010). In 2010, he took up the Chair in Cardiac Biophysics and Systems Biology at the Imperial College London. Since 2015, he directs the Institute for Experimental Cardiovascular Medicine at Freiburg. Peter is also a Guest Professor in Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Oxford.
In terms of scientific focus, Peter uses a mix of experimental and computational techniques to study cardiac structure-function cross-talk, with focus on the heterocellular nature of the heart, i.e. including contributions from myocytes and non-myocytes.
During his term as Editor-in-Chief at The Journal of Physiology, Peter is committed to continuing the work of current Editor-in-Chief, Kim Barrett, by broadening the representation of physiologists from all backgrounds. He also aims to expand the reach of The Journal and improve the author experience, positioning The Journal as ‘the’ international first choice for publishing high impact physiology research. Finally, Peter will be helping The Journal to prepare for Open Access.
Speaking about why he thinks The Journal of Physiology is special, he said:
“I think what is special about The Journal Physiology is its legacy, its breadth and depth. And I think the strength of The Journal lies in the fact that it publishes quantitative biology, that it supports integrative approaches across scales, systems, species, including humans, and that it drives mechanistic insight.”
Watch the full interview with Peter here: