June 2015
Jaime Benchimol by Lovatto. 2015.
Click to enlarge.
Jaime L. Benchimol
I’ve gone…
I’ve gone after investing the most productive years of my career in this journal, born in mid-1994 as the brainchild of Sérgio Goes de Paula, Ruth B. Martins, and me, the author of this brief farewell, with the additional support of Paulo Gadelha, then director of the Casa de Oswaldo Cruz and the journal’s first science editor. História, Ciências, Saúde – Manguinhos had a forerunner: Cadernos da Casa de Oswaldo Cruz, an amateurish publication launched in November 1989, my hand in it as well. The histories of health and the sciences – especially the life sciences – have witnessed major transformations since that time, and História, Ciências, Saúde – Manguinhos has played a vital role in the maturation of these transdisciplinary fields. Tremendous changes have also taken place and are still underway in the world of scholarly journals and science communication. História, Ciências, Saúde – Manguinhos has been successful in adapting; even more, it has been successful in making innovative use of new communication technologies, means, and languages. It has become a respected journal in the field of history and other realms of academia, and this makes me very proud.
And it needs new blood. So I’ve gone.
But I’ve gone with the honor of passing the baton to two colleagues whom I greatly admire. Marcos Cueto, a historian of international renown, will know how to lead História, Ciências, Saúde – Manguinhos to a position of definitive recognition abroad. And André Felipe Cândido da Silva, a young talent from the newest crop of doctorates, will know how to imbue the journal with renewed vitality in its interactions with emerging groups and fields in the history of the sciences and of health.
I’ve gone with a feeling of deep tranquility, because standing at the helm of the journal is executive editor Roberta Cardoso Cerqueira, sure, steady, and at the height of her prowess. She was a young girl when she got here and here she matured, like a fine wine.
I’ve gone with my heart broken, because I have to leave behind a delightful, expert, supportive editorial team, who made my day-to-day a memorable trove of productive, challenging, and fun moments. I would like to record my most sincere thanks to Mônica Cruz Caminha, Camilo Papi, Mônica Auler, Vinícius Renaud, and Marciel Mendonça Rosa and also to those who, even at a distance, shape the journal’s daily life: the creative Fernando Vasconcelos, our graphic designer; Maria Helena Torres, top-notch copyeditor; Marina Lemle, soul of the journal’s new virtual incarnations; Diane Grosklaus Whitty, matchless translator and very dear friend; and Miriam Junghans, the lovely flight attendant who remade herself as an editor and scholar par excellence. I would also like to extend my thanks to those who gave life to past iterations of this team – which were equally fortunate and felicitous – especially Ruth B. Martins, longtime friend and friend forever; the discreet and genteel Isnar Francisco de Paula; the multi-talented Regina Celie Simões Marques and Maria Elisa Luiz da Silveira…
My list of thanks should include other names as well: people who rendered invaluable services to the journal as copyeditors, translators, peer reviewers, members of the Editorial Board, assistant editors, and department editors. A thousand pardons. In its limited space, this farewell letter does not let me duly acknowledge the debt I owe them. But my heart does compel me to leave a warm hug for three of my ‘masters’: Guida (Margarida de Souza Neves), Charles Pessanha, and Luiz Antonio de Castro Santos. Nor can I fail to mention the directors of the Casa de Oswaldo Cruz, who have always lent their most resolute support to História, Ciências, Saúde – Manguinhos. Without Paulo Gadelha, Nísia Trindade Lima, Nara Azevedo, and Paulo Roberto Elian dos Santos, the journal would never have come so far. And in the course of this journey, we could always count on the assistance of the accomplished team at SciELO, led by Abel Packer and Rogério Meneghini. I learned tons with them.
Without the colleagues I’ve mentioned, without the journal’s contributors (who taught me so much), without our readers, something will be missing from my life. Allow me to close with a proverb – African, I think – that so very perfectly fits this train that is traveling on without me: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
I’ve gone…
Jaime L. Benchimol
Read more
Marcos Cueto and André Felipe Cândido da Silva, the new science editors of História, Ciências, Saúde – Manguinhos speak on forthcoming pathways.
