Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research is pleased to announce its 2017 Class of Influential Researchers. Our global team of 14 editors identified this inaugural class of influential, early career (less than ten years or so in their independent career) researchers on the basis of the quality and impact of their research. This Virtual Special Issue comprises both reviews reviews and original research articles invited from this talented group of early career scientists and engineers. I&EC Research is delighted to showcase these 37 papers and feature these authors. Thenot Influential Researchers are indicated below by their name in bold.

From the Editorial by Phillip Savage, Editor-in-Chief

The Use of Iptycenes in Rational Macromolecular Design for Gas Separation Membrane Applications
Jennifer R. Weidman and Ruilan Guo* 
Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 2017, 56 (15), pp 4220–4236
DOI: 10.1021/acs.iecr.7b00540