Dear Colleagues,

The journal Agriculture (MDPI, Switzerland, ISSN 2077-0472, https://www.mdpi.com/journal/agriculture) is inviting applications for the Agriculture 2021 Best Ph.D. Thesis Award. This prize will be awarded to a Ph.D. student who is about to graduate or participate in the graduation thesis. The applications will be assessed by an Evaluation Committee consisting of senior scholars from the Agriculture Editorial Board.

Eligibility Requirements:
(a) The candidate must be a Ph.D. student who is going to graduate or participate in the graduation thesis defense.

(b) The PhD thesis must be original work.

(c) The PhD thesis must be defended between 1 September, 2020 and 31 August, 2021.

(d) Applicants are required to submit the following documents:

- An executive summary of the PhD thesis in English, of around 250–300 words;
- A letter from the PhD supervisor recommending the candidate for consideration for this award;
- The candidate’s CV, including a list of publications connected with the thesis;
- An electronic copy of the PhD thesis;
- A scanned copy of the PhD diploma.

Selection Criteria:

All applications will be assessed by an evaluation committee led by the Editor-in-Chief, Prof. Dr. Les Copeland according to the following criteria:

- Quality of resume and publications;
- Relevance of the candidate and research description;
- Novelty of the candidate’s PhD thesis;
- Strength of the recommendation letter;
- Anticipated academic potential;
- Originality and impact of the research.

Prizes
– Bonus (800 CHF);
– Certificate;

How to apply?
Please submit your application online.
The application deadline is 31 December 2021. The winner will be announced on the Agriculture website by the end of January 2022.

Please feel free to contact us at mailto:[email protected] with any questions.

Dear colleagues, 

It is with deepest regret that we announce that the Agriculture 2021 Travel Awards has been postponed to 2022 due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak. 

We are pleased to announce that Agriculture will instead be awarding the 2021-2022 Travel Awards for junior scientists. The applications will be assessed by an evaluation committee presided over by Editor-in-Chief Prof. Dr. Les Copeland.

 Candidate Requirements:

• Candidates should be postdoctoral fellows (within five years of receiving a Ph.D.) or Ph.D. students (proof required).
• Candidates should have plans to attend an international conference in 2021 and 2022 (oral presentation or poster).

Required Application Documents:

1. Information about the conference the applicant is planning to attend and the abstract that will be submitted.
2. Curriculum vitae and list of publications.
3. Justification letter describing the focus of the research (max. 800 words).
4. Letter of recommendation from a supervisor.

The winners (two awardees) will each be awarded 800 CHF and a certificate.

We encourage you to share this announcement with your postdoctoral fellows and ask them to submit their applications online at https://www.mdpi.com/journal/agriculture/awards/1044.

The application deadline has been extended to 31 May 2021. The winners will be announced at the middle of June 2021.

Kind regards,
Agriculture Editorial Office

[email protected]

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce that the winner of the Agriculture 2021 Young Investigator Award is Dr. Carlos Guzmán.

Dr. Carlos Guzmán defended his Ph.D. in 2011 at the University of Cordoba, Spain. His Ph.D. was focused on wheat genetic resources for wheat quality improvement and was granted the Outstanding Thesis Award by his university. In 2012, Carlos joined the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Mexico, as a post-doc to work in the Wheat Chemistry and Quality Laboratory within the Global Wheat Program. In 2014, he obtained a scientist position to lead the laboratory and the activities related to grain quality improvement. After working for eight years at CIMMYT, he returned to the University of Cordoba in Spain in 2019 with a researcher position (Ramon y Cajal Program grant). His work has engaged everything related to wheat quality, from better understanding the genetic control and environmental effects on the traits that determine wheat processing and end-use quality to the development of novel methodologies that allow a more efficient integration of grain quality in wheat breeding programs. Carlos has also participated in research projects related to the implementation of novel technologies such as genomic selection in breeding programs or to the enhancement of wheat grain nutritional quality. He has published more than 70 articles in high-impact peer-reviewed journals, five book chapters, and two books. He has also participated in numerous international seminars and conferences (as an invited speaker, organizer, or chair) and has participated in several international initiatives related to wheat breeding and quality. Carlos has obtained, in grants and in contracts with the private sector, close to USD 1 million. Carlos´s ongoing work is focused on all aspects of wheat quality and breeding, with a special focus on understanding the relations between the phenotypic and genetic variability and on transferring quality traits of interest to commercial wheat varieties.

As the awardee, Dr. Carlos Guzmán will receive an honorarium of 2000 CHF, an offer to publish a paper free of charge before 31 December 2022 in Agriculture after peer-review, and an engraved plaque.

We would like to thank all the nominators from various fields of study for their participation and all the Award Committee Members for their evaluation of the abundant excellent nominations.

Prof. Dr. Les Copeland
Editor-in-Chief, Agriculture

The Agriculture editorial team would like to congratulate the winner of the 2019 Best Paper Award. After a thorough evaluation of the originality and significance of the papers, citations, and downloads in 2019, the two winning papers, which were nominated by the Editor-in-Chief and Associate Editor-in-Chief, will receive the awards:

A Novel Machine Learning Method for Estimating Biomass of Grass Swards Using a Photogrammetric Canopy Height Model, Images and Vegetation Indices Captured by a Drone
Authors: Niko Viljanen, Eija Honkavaara, Roope Näsi, Teemu Hakala, Oiva Niemeläinen and Jere Kaivosoja
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/8/5/70

Global Biofuels at the Crossroads: An Overview of Technical, Policy, and Investment Complexities in the Sustainability of Biofuel Development
Authors: Kathleen Araújo, Devinder Mahajan, Ryan Kerr and Marcelo da Silva
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/7/4/32

We congratulate the authors and thank them for choosing Agriculture to publish their work. In recognition of their accomplishment, the winner will receive a reward of 500 Swiss Francs and one free publication quota. All the original research papers and review articles published in 2017 and 2018 were eligible for consideration.

In order to acknowledge our reviewers, who give their time so generously to ensure high-quality publications in Agriculture, the editorial team plans to dedicate an award to reviewers for their exceptional commitment, professionalism, and timeliness in reviewing manuscripts for Agriculture. Anonymous peer-reviewing guarantees the quality and integrity of scholarly communication. The Agriculture editorial team is extremely grateful to reviewers for their time, energy, professionalism, and commitment.

The following reviewer has been selected by the Editor-in-Chief and Associate Editor-in-Chief and Editorial Office of Agriculture to be awarded the “Agriculture Outstanding Reviewer 2019” award for the quantity, timeliness and quality of their reviews in 2018.

Dr. Stefania Biondi
Dipartimento di Scienze Biologiche, Geologiche e Ambientali, Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy

Dr. Stefania Biondi will receive 500 Swiss Francs and an electronic certificate.

Dear Colleagues,

An exciting new initiative launched this year by Agriculture is the establishment of two Travel Awards to assist a Junior Researcher and a PhD student to attend a relevant conference. Over 200 eligible applications, from Europe, USA and Australia, were evaluated by an international panel of experts, who ranked the applicants according to their CV and scholarly achievements, their research, the significance of the conference, and their career aspirations. Selecting the award winners from the two highly competitive fields was very difficult, and so it is a great pleasure for me to announce the worthy winners of the inaugural Agriculture Travel Awards:

• The Junior Research Award winner is Dr Sandra LopezRayo of the University Autonoma of Madrid (Spain), who will attend the International Plant Nutrition Colloquium in Copenhagen, Denmark in August 2017.

• The PhD Award winner is Ali Ahsan Bajwa of the University of Queensland (Australia), who will attend the 26th Asian Pacific Weed Science Society Conference in Kyoto, Japan in September 2017.

Les Copeland
Editor in Chief