From Martin Chalfie:

Dear Members of the C. elegans Community,

A little over twelve years ago several of us starting talking about the possibility of having an online review of C. elegans that would replace the outdated Cold Spring Harbor monographs (The Nematode Caenorhabditis elegans and C.elegans II).  These discussions led to the establishment of WormBook, and I became its Editor-in-Chief.  Now after shepherding over 150 articles into WormBook and reestablishing The Worm Breeders Gazette I feel that we have created a wonderful resource.  But I have found that my time has been taken up by so many other commitments recently that I no longer feel able to put the effort into WormBook that I believe it deserves (also 12 years is more than enough time for one person to be in charge).

For these reasons I have decided to step down as Editor-in-Chief.  Fortunately, Iva Greenwald, who has served as a spectacular section editor, has agreed to become the next Editor-in-Chief and oversee the changes that are necessary to keep WormBook a strong and essential resource for our community.  I know she will do a terrific job.

Before ending this letter, I want to thank the people that really made WormBook possible.  These people include Paul Sternberg as the publisher of WormBook through WormBase, whose support and enthusiasm have been essential; our two hard working editors Lisa Gerard and Jane Mendel, who made WormBook a reality; Oliver Hobert, who officially is the editor of WormMethods, but has really served as an assistant Editor-in-Chief; Lincoln Stein, Tristan Fiedler, Todd Harris, and Qinghua (Daniel) Wang, who brought WormBook to life on the web; and you the members of the Editorial Board [for the Gazette: and the past and present members of the Editorial Board], whose involvement and support made WormBook the model for all the other organism “Books.”  We have made something wonderful, and I thank all of you for showing once again the strength and dedication of the C. elegans community.

All the best,

Marty