In 1979, I received a call from Gerhard Schrauzer who informed me that he was organizing a society, the International Association of Bioinorganic Scientists. A new journal, Biological Trace Element Research, was being created under the auspices of that organization. He invited me to become member of the editorial board of that journal. Because this was early in my research career, the invitation was a pleasant surprise as the editors and editorial board were to be well established widely recognized scientists in the trace element field. I immediately accepted, and 40 years later, I remain the only individual of that group still a member of the board. Although the society faded away, I observed the journal, originally published by the Humana Press, develop from a quarterly publication that accepted almost every submission, to a journal, now published monthly by Springer Nature, that contains over 300 of the best of the over 1150 submissions received each year. This has resulted in an increasing impact factor of over 2.3 and has been accomplished through the efforts of associate editors and editorial board members past and present. Members of the current editorial board, in addition to some individuals that have been outstanding reviewers for the journal, were invited to contribute to this 40th anniversary issue that was organized and edited by John Vincent. Those who accepted the invitation wrote the refereed articles in this issue. These articles present the current status and future considerations for health and well-being of the essential elements manganese, copper, iodine, iron, magnesium, selenium, and zinc; the beneficial elements boron, chromium, nickel, silicon, and vanadium; and the toxicological elements aluminum, mercury, and lead. They show that the study of nutritional, pharmacological, and toxicological roles trace elements in animals and humans is still relevant and Biological Trace Element Research will be an integral instrument in showing the research advancements in this field.