20 May 2024
Interview with Dr. Marcos Tostado-Véliz—Winner of the Energies 2023 Outstanding Reviewer Award
We are pleased to announce Dr. Marcos Tostado-Véliz as one of the winners of the Energies 2023 Outstanding Reviewer Award.
Name: Dr. Marcos Tostado-Véliz
Affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Jaén, Linares, Spain
Research Interests: power systems; renewable energy; microgrid; energy management; uncertainties modelling; robust optimization; electric vehicle; home energy management; smart homes; energy storage; green hydrogen
The following is an interview with Dr. Marcos Tostado-Véliz:
- Could you give a brief introduction of yourself to the readers?
I received Electrical Engineering (with Hons.) and Master’s degrees in 2016 and 2017, respectively, from the University of Seville, Spain. I started pursuing my Ph.D. in 2017 and finally obtained it in 2020, with a 'Cum Laude' qualification at the University of Jaén, where I am currently an assistant professor, as of 2022.
- What’s your current research focus, and why did you choose this research field? As a reviewer, what kind of manuscripts would you prefer to review in the future?
My current research areas focus, principally, on smart grids and related computational tools and mathematical modeling. I am especially interested in the optimization of microgrids, energy communities and smart homes, with a special focus on the optimal integration of electric vehicles, demand response and renewables. In the future, I would like to review papers related to the integration of renewables and electric vehicles into existing power networks. I think this is one of the main challenges of power systems in the near future, and there are many open topics that need to be addressed. Moreover, multi-energy systems and nexus technologies have attracted my attention recently and I would like to see more papers in this field.
- Which research topics do you think are of particular interest to the research community in the coming years?
All issues related to the decarbonization of energy systems will be of special interest in the future. Within this field, there are some thrilling issues like the optimal integration of electric vehicles or stability of power systems. Hydrogen generation technologies will also be a promising area, due to the important projects that were recently launched in Europe and other areas.
- We are an open access journal. How do you think open access impacts authors?
I think that open access is positive for society rather than the scientific community and therefore it is a great initiative, in my opinion. However, I think that OA journals should be very rigorous during revision processes in order to avoid the effect of 'pay for publishing'. I think this issue has affected the reputation of many OA journals in recent years.
- Which qualities do you think reviewers need?
Mainly two: being fair and impartial. When one reviews a paper, the referee has to be uniquely focused on the scientific content of the manuscript and no other superfluous interests. For instance, some reviewers are more concerned about obtaining citations rather than improving the quality of the manuscript.
