8/29/2025 Siv Schwink for Illinois Physics
In this role, Fernandes will serve as the lead scientific advisor to the journal on its scope, direction, and strategy.
Written by Siv Schwink for Illinois Physics
The American Physical Society (APS) has appointed Illinois Physics Professor Rafael Fernandes to serve as lead editor of its flagship publication, Physical Review Letters (PRL). Founded in 1958, PRL provides scientists with weekly coverage of pivotal developments in fundamental, applied, and interdisciplinary physics research through rapid publication of short reports written by leading researchers. Among the APS’s 17 scientific journals, PRL is distinctive for the depth and breadth of fields covered.
Fernandes’s three-year appointment begins September 1 and is renewable for a second three-year term. In this role, Fernandes will serve as the lead scientific advisor to the journal on its scope, direction, and strategy. He will also chair the PRL editorial board, made up of the journal’s divisional associate editors and early career advisors. Day-to-day operations of the journal are managed by the chief editor and staff editors.
Fernandes says when he applied for the position, he felt excited by the prospect of serving his scientific community in this way.
“This is our journal, our community’s journal,” says Fernandes. “We, as a community of scientists, created this to share our most important research findings in real time. I’m proud of this—many Nobel Prize–winning research discoveries have been published here.”
Fernandes is a condensed matter theorist working in quantum materials and correlated electronic systems and a member of the Anthony J. Leggett Institute for Condensed Matter Theory. He says he sees this role as a liaison to the scientific community and expects to learn a lot about the publishing needs and challenges specific to the different fields of physics.
He notes, “The landscape of scientific publishing has changed substantially over the past two decades, and there are now so many more journals, including for-profit, where we can publish our findings. At the same time, new physics research areas have emerged and large international collaborations have formed. And we’ve entered the AI era, which affects both authors and reviewers.
“It’s important to ask, what can and what should we do to ensure the continued success of our community’s flagship journal? We own our journal and its process; we own our Letters. We must care for it and not take its success for granted.”
Fernandes recalls during his time at the University of Minnesota, where he was a Distinguished McKnight University Professor until 2024, his office was housed in John Tate Hall. The building is named for the late John Torrence Tate Sr., whose editorship of Physical Review from 1926 to 1950 transformed it into the high-impact journal that enabled physicists in the United States and around the world to rapidly share their scientific contributions.
“I hope to follow the spirit of John Tate’s example by contributing to the continued high impact of PRL through careful attention to the evolving publication needs of our community across fields,” he says.