Dr. Michel Planat Appointed Editor-in-Chief of International Journal of Topology

We are pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Michel Planat as the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Topology (ISSN: 2813-9542).

Affiliation: CNRS, Institut FEMTO-ST, Université de Franche-Comté, F-25044 Besançon, France
Interests: topological quantum computing; epigenetics and epitranscriptomics; signal processing; geometry; quantum mechanics; discrete mathematics; graph theory; group theory; structural stability; communication; pure mathematics; topology

Dr. Michel Planat was a researcher at the National Center of Scientific Research in France from 1982 to 2018. From 1980 to 2001, he conducted research on nonlinear waves in piezoelectric crystals and 1/f noise in quartz resonators. He established links between 1/f noise and number theory and conducted research on the Riemann hypothesis. He also discovered Ramanujan sums signal processing. From 2002 to 2018, he focused on quantum information theory, working on mutually unbiased bases, quantum entanglement and contextuality, and quantum computing, using mathematical tools such as finite geometries, number theory, dessins d’enfants, and free group theory. Since 2019, he has published collaborative papers on topological quantum computing, as well as genomics and transcriptomics. The main tool he uses is the representation theory (with character varieties) of infinite groups associated with relevant DNA/RNA sequences.

The following is a short Q&A with Dr. Michel Planat, who shared his vision for the journal with us, as well as his views of the research area and open access publishing:

1. What appealed to you about the journal that made you want to take the role of its Editor-in-Chief?

   I was first approached by the journal to join the Editorial Board, and I accepted this invitation since the subject is of interest to me, but I was quite surprised that out of all the Editor Board Members, it was proposed to me to become the Editor-in-Chief. When I was offered this role, I accepted it with great interest because I could thus work on the subject of topology more than before. Additionally, putting topology at large in several different subjects in the journal and assuming a form of leadership would be useful to the field.

2. What is your vision for the journal?

   I am almost sure that because the journal will try to develop the application of topology, this will be the only journal doing this. So, I think this is one important aspect of the journal. But it is also like other journals in MDPI in that it is a very open-minded journal. In fact, science is completely interdisciplinary, and it is very necessary to be able to pass from one subject to another without problems. The International Journal of Topology will do the same and I hope that more and more scholars will choose this journal as well. In topology, when you look at published papers, there are difficult papers, mathematical papers, and I think the vision of the International Journal of Topology is to look at this topic in a broader sense.

3. What does the future of this field of research look like?

   As I said before, topology is a difficult mathematical area, but as soon as we find more applications, topology will transform like geometry has through time. For example, topology has many applications in physics, and if topology develops even more, it could be useful to better understand quantum mechanics, gravitation, cosmology and condensed matter physics, etc. I am also currently using topology in the field of genomics, and this is where I think it may lead to successful ways of understanding more of how life is organized, how health is preserved and so on.

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

   MDPI is a leader in open access publishing, and I just see many other journals doing the same. I like that while there are publication fees, if you are a good researcher in your field, you can be recognized for your contribution and receive financial support.

We wish Dr. Michel Planat every success in his new position, and we look forward to his contributions to the journal.