To celebrate the distinguished career and outstanding accomplishments of Prof. Joseph B. Natowitz in nuclear sciences, and acknowledge especially his important contributions to the success of the journal Nuclear Science & Techniques as a member of its Advisory Board, we are honored to dedicate this special section to Prof. Natowitz.

Over the years, Prof. Natowitz has been enthusiastically promoting international collaborations in nuclear sciences. In particular, he has supervised and hosted many Chinese students, postdocs and visitors at the Cyclotron Institute of Texas A&M University. These people have benefited greatly from being associated with Joe both professionally and personally. Many of them have become successful in their own research and are playing important roles in their home institutions in China or abroad. Some 25 colleagues, mostly Joe’s long-time collaborators from China and the United States, held a Fest-symposium on Nuclear Dynamics and Thermodynamics for the 80^th of Prof. Joseph B. Natowitz on Dec 11^th, 2016 in Huizhou, China, just before the CUSTIPEN-IMP-PKU Workshop on Physics of Exotic Nuclei at the same location. This special section collects refereed reviews and research papers dedicated to Prof. Natowitz from some participants of the Fest-symposium.

Prof. Natowitz received his bachelor degree of science in chemistry in 1958 from the University of Florida, where he was a Winn-Lovett Undergraduate Fellow. He obtained a certificate in meteorology in 1959 from the University of California at Los Angeles, thereafter served three years as a lieutenant and staff meteorologist in the United States Air Force prior to earning his doctorate in nuclear chemistry in 1965 from the University of Pittsburgh. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook from 1965-67 before joining Texas A&M University.

Before becoming an emeritus Distinguished Professor, Joe was the inaugural holder of the Bright Chair in Nuclear Science and a Distinguished Professor at Texas A&M University. He served as Head of the Department of Chemistry from 1982-85 and Director of the Cyclotron Institute from 1991 through 2002. He is recognized as one of the world's most prominent nuclear chemists and a leading expert in the field of nuclear reaction dynamics and properties of hot nuclei. His research has been recognized internationally by being elected as a Fellow of the American Physical Society (1981), a Fellow of the American Chemistry Society (2010), awarded the American Chemical Society’s Award in Nuclear Chemistry (1995) and Southwest Regional Award (2000), as well as an Alexander von Humboldt Senior Scientist Award (1978) and an Association of Former Students Research award from Texas A&M University (1988). He has been a Visiting Professor at the Université de Caen and the Université Claude Bernard in France, the University of Tokyo, Japan, and the Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium. He has also been Visiting Senior Scientist at the Max Planck Institute in Heidelberg, Germany and the Centre d’Etudes Nucléaires, Saclay, France.

As a member of the Advisory Board of Nuclear Science & Techniques, Prof. Natowitz has been a very strong supporter and helpful advisor. He has been quite active in guiding our journal and helping promote it internationally. Thanks to the collective efforts of the advisory and editorial board members as well as the authors and referees, we have seen significant improvements in recent years in both the quality of papers published and the impact of our journal in the international nuclear science and technology community. With this special section, we express our sincere thanks to Prof. Natowitz for his important contributions to the success of our journal.  

Yu-Gang Ma, Editor-in-Chief, on behalf of the advisory and editorial boards of Nuclear Science and Techniques (NST)