Prof. Dr. Catalin R. Picu Appointed Associate Editor of Fibers

We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Catalin R. Picu has been appointed Associate Editor of Fibers (ISSN: 2079-6439).

Name: Prof. Dr. Catalin R. Picu
Affiliation: Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Nuclear Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA
Interests: mechanical behavior of fibers and fiber network materials; nonwovens; polymeric networks; mechanics of molecular crystals

The following is a short Q&A with Prof. Dr. Catalin R. Picu, who shared his vision for the journal with us, as well as his view of the research area and open access publishing:

1. What appealed to you about Fibers that made you want to take on the role as its Associate Editor?

Fibers is a relatively young, but a fast-growing journal that has already risen to a standard mandating the attention of the scientific community that it addresses.

2. What is your vision for Fibers?

The journal publishes articles addressing various issues of great interest. Topics of current and future interest include sustainable and environmentally safe fibers and fiber-based materials, developing fibrous materials with controlled architectures and exceptional mechanical properties, and the development of artificial fibers of high specific strength and toughness. Promoting research along these lines may be made a priority for the journal.

3. What does the future of fiber research look like?

The future of fiber research is tied to that of engineering and biomaterials. In the engineering materials world, the community works on high-strength fibers for composites and fibrous materials of various kinds, ranging from paper to nonwovens and nanostructured network materials. In the area of biomaterials, topics such as biomimetics, biocompatibility, toxicity, and tissue engineering are all related to progress in fiber and fiber-based materials research.

4. What do you think of the development of open access in the publishing field?

The open access model, although not without flaws, responds to the need to make scientific results readily available to society.

We congratulate Prof. Dr. Catalin R. Picu on his new role as Associate Editor and we look forward to him leading Fibers to many more milestones.

Fibers Editorial Office