Exergy Int. J. 1(1) (2001) 2www.exergyonline.com

Message from the Honorary Editor

Adrian BejanDepartment of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, P.O. Box 90300, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708-0300, USA

As the new century begins, we are witnessing revolutionary changes in the way thermodynamics is taught, researchedand practiced. The methods of exergy analysis, entropy generation minimization and thermoeconomics are the mostvisible and established forms of this change. Today there is a much stronger emphasis on second-law aspects ofsystems and processes — losses, the mechanisms that cause losses, and the minimization of losses, if not theircomplete elimination. The emphasis is now on modeling and thermodynamic optimization, not only in the mainstream ofengineering but also in physics, biology, economics and management.

A very active and creative community of researchers, educators and practitioners has grown along these very excitingnew lines. The community of thermodynamics, exergy, entropy and optimization spans the entire globe. It is the editors’objective to bring this community together in the pages of Exergy, An International Journal, and to expand it. The hopeof all of us in thermodynamics is to develop a more coherent science, and to leave for future generations a more usefulmethodology.

2 2001 Éditions scientifiques et médicales Elsevier SAS. All rights reservedS1164-0235(01)00002-4/EDI