We spoke with Prof. Dr. Dimitrios Nikolopoulos, one of the winners of the Geosciences 2025 Editor of Distinction Award, to hear about his scientific research experience.

Name: Prof. Dr. Dimitrios Nikolopoulos
Affiliation: Department of Industrial Design and Production Engineering, University of West Attica, Petrou Ralli & Thivon 250, GR122 44, Aigaleo, Greece
Research interests and skills:
1. Precursory phenomena; radon in soil; kHz-GHz radiation; fractals; power-law; R/S analysis; Hurst exponent; chaos; symbolic dynamics; entropy; persistency; anti-persistency; SOC;
2. Monte Carlo simulation: X-rays, γ-rays; a-particles; detectors; dosimetry; medical dosimetry; PET; SPECT; EGSNRCmp; GATE; gfortran; optical models; light propagation in detectors;
3. Non-ionizing radiation; WiFi; DECT, mobile phones; electromagnetic radiation; base stations; antennas; NARDA;
4. Radiation Protection: ionizing and non-ionizing radiation; nuclear radiation; radon and progeny; risks; health effects; survey; radon in spas; models; stochastic methods; dynamical models; environmental radiation;
5. Medical Physics: γ-radiation in medicine; radiation protection; nuclear medicine; dosimetry; CT; PET;
6. Urban Air Pollution: chaos; stochastic models; PM10; ozone;
7. Environmental studies; sustainable environment;
8. Programming: gfortran; gcc; R; python; bash scripting; UNIX; Linux; LaTEX; BibTEX.

1. Could you briefly introduce your academic background and current research focus?
I am a physicist with a degree from the Physics Department of the University of Athens, Greece. I have a PhD in medical physics from the Medical Physics Department, Medical School, University of Athens.
From the above research interest, currently I am working on precursory phenomena, both with radon and electromagnetic radiation, and all the related methodology. This is the main focus. This is also my main editor activity. We have full possibilities for measurements of non-ionizing radiation, so it is a current focus as well. My activities in MSc courses are in Monte Carlo Modelling, so I work with MSc and PhD students on that part as well. I love programming for my scientific research, so I am always in a computer scripting or developing software. In my department, colleagues work on sustainability, so I take part in it as well.
I would say that my main interests are teaching, researching, and assisting as an editor and reviewer for journals, mainly of MDPI.

2. How was your experience being an editor for Geosciences?
For me, Geosciences is my best activity. All editorial members have excellent communication. There is a continuous approach for enhancing the journal. The communication of the journal member is characterized by politeness, understanding, and kind expressions. I love working with Geosciences. It is a good journal, not easy, and covers many aspects. I have read very good papers, and I had the opportunity of making good contributions. This made me better.

3. Do you have any suggestions for improving our editorial process?
I have mentioned these many times in my internal communications. We have to select reviewers with medium to very good metrics. The most important thing is also the relativity with the subject of each paper.
I feel happy because I see suggestions of good reviewers by the editorial assistants, and this is a very good step. I always try to make more suggestions because it is not easy for a good reviewer to accept and submit a report on time.

4. What motivated you to participate actively in the editorial process, and what do you find most rewarding about it?
At first, there were some Special Issues in which I got involved. Then, working hard to attract submissions to these issues, I was honoured to be invited as an Editorial Board Member. For me, this is a true honour and a great responsibility. This is because the journal is very good, and the publications are of high quality, so I have to be very careful with the submissions because new science should be in its best form.

5. How do you manage your time and balance your responsibilities as a researcher and an editor?
I am working every day and all year long. I have good organization in my schedule, and this allows me to balance my responsibilities.

6. How do you see the role of editors evolving with the advancements in artificial intelligence and automated tools in research publishing?
Artificial Intelligence is a problem in writing that people use. It is good that the plagiarism tools, such as TurnitIN software, identify today's artificial intelligence. On the other hand, the use of deep learning models and artificial intelligence models in geoscience is a new tendency with several new papers.