Welcoming Prof. Dr. Haotong Zhang and Dr. Maurizio Pajola to the Editorial Board of Universe

We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Haotong Zhang has joined Universe (ISSN 2218-1997) as an Editorial Board Member of the “Stellar Astronomy” Section (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/universe/sections/stellar_astronomy).

Prof. Dr. Haotong Zhang is a professor at the National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Science. He is the chair of the LAMOST (Large sky Area Multi-Object fiber Spectroscopic Telescope) scientific survey department.

He received his Ph.D. in astrophysics from the University of Science and Technology of China in 2001. He has been working for LAMOST since he graduated. He led the development of the LAMOST 2D data reduction pipeline and the survey strategy pipeline. He also led the first LAMOST time-domain test survey and the subsequent discovery of the non-interacting massive stellar black hole LB1. His research interests include data reduction and spectral analyzing methods in spectral surveys, the fiber positioning measurement method, binaries with compact objects (black holes, neutron stars, white dwarfs), observational study of the formation and evolution of binaries, etc.

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Maurizio Pajola has joined Universe (ISSN 2218-1997) as an Editorial Board Member of the “Planetary Sciences” Section (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/universe/sections/planetary_sciences).

Dr. Maurizio Pajola is a Staff Researcher at the National Institute for Astrophysics-Astronomical Observatory of Padova (INAF-OAPD, Italy). In 2014, he received his Ph.D. in astronautics and Satellite Sciences in collaboration with the Center for Studies and Activities for Space “G.Colombo”, CISAS-University of Padova, and the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena-California/USA after completing a thesis on the geological characterization and surface spectroscopy of the drainage networks of ancient Mars.

In 2014-2015, Maurizio worked as a Post-Doc at the CISAS-UPD, focusing on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko surface analysis through Rosetta high-resolution imagery. In 2016-2017, he worked as a NASA Fellow at the Ames Research Center, in Moffett Field-California/USA, where he analyzed the surface mineralogy of Phobos and identified how to engineer the safest and geologically most interesting Martian landing sites for the ExoMars and the Mars 2020 rovers.

He is currently involved in different minor bodies and planetary space missions and is a Co-Investigator of the NASA OSIRIS-Rex sample return mission from Near-Earth Asteroid (101955) Bennu; a Team Member of the NASA/ASI DART/LICIACube mission to the binary NEA (65803) Didymos-Dimorphos; an Associate Scientist of the ESA OSIRIS/Rosetta mission to the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko; and Associate Scientist of the ESA CaSSIS/ExoMars for the exploration of the Martian surface; and an Associate Scientist of the SIMBIO-SYS/BepiColombo mission for the exploration of Mercury.

He is working on a geomorphological and spectrophotometric analysis of Martian paleoriverbeds and paleolakes as well as on the identification of future Mars Human landing sites. He focuses on mineralogical clustering and the modeling of the different types of terrains present on the planet Mercury. In addition, he is carrying out research activities on comet 67P and Phobos.