Interview with Dr. Daqin Guan—Winner of the Nanomaterials Outstanding Reviewer Award

The Outstanding Reviewer Award is given annually in recognition of reviewers who generously contribute their time to reviewing papers and display thoroughness, professionalism, and timeliness in doing so. All winners were chosen by the journal’s award committee.

We spoke with Dr. Daqin Guan, winner of the Nanomaterials 2024 Outstanding Reviewer Award, to hear his opinions and about his experiences with scientific research and awards.

Name: Dr. Daqin Guan
Affiliation: Curtin University, Australia
Research interests: nanomaterials; electrocatalysis; energy; material physics

1. Could you give a brief introduction of yourself to the readers? Could you introduce your current research direction and provide an update on your progress?

My name is Daqin Guan, currently a DECRA (Discovery Early Career Research Award) Research Fellow at Curtin University. I have focused on the rational design and development of oxide materials for green hydrogen production via electrochemical reactions during the past 8 years. I have gained rich experience in material structural analysis and operando/ex situ X-ray adsorption spectrum technologies. In the past 5 years, I have authored 20 publications as the first author or the corresponding author in high-profile journals, including 2 in Nature Communications, 3 in Advanced Materials, 1 in Energy & Environmental Science, and 2 in Advanced Functional Materials. I am a regular peer reviewer for over 20 international journals. To date, I have authored 77 publications with over 6200 citations and an h-index of 43 (Google Scholar).

My current research direction is to design and optimize Ru-based oxides for an oxygen evolution reaction in acidic solutions, which is a bottleneck reaction in the promising proton exchange membrane electrolyzer for green hydrogen production.

2. Which research topics do you think will be of particular interest to the research community in the coming years?

a. Scale-up hydrogen-production technologies for industry applications;
b. Carbon capture and conversion;
c. Artificial intelligence and machine learning;
d. Plastic degradation and transformation;
e. Energy storage technologies.

3. What do you think are the main criteria that should be taken seriously in the process of reviewing manuscripts?

a. Pay attention to the formatting, such as abbreviations, misspellings, units, and the quality of the figures;
b. Some reliable references should be added to support the given analysis;
c. When using materials such as catalysts, necessary characterizations of morphology, structure, and electronic structure should be measured and analyzed;
d. Further characterizations of morphology, structure, and electronic structure of materials after catalysis can help demonstrate the underlying catalysis mechanism.

4. What is your opinion of the open access model of publishing?

I strongly support the principles of open access, especially when combined with strong peer review and ethical publishing practices. The important advantages include:

a. Equity in knowledge sharing;
b. Increased accessibility;
c. Greater visibility and impact.

However, the authors should pay the Article Processing Charges, and the reviewers have the duty to control the quality of the manuscripts to improve the quality of the published papers.