Announcements
13 November 2024
Meet Us at the 4th Central European Technology Forum, 18–19 November 2024, Krakow, Poland
13 November 2024
Meet Us at the 38th IEEE International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (IEEE MEMS 2025), 19–23 January 2025, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
6 November 2024
Meet Us at the Future Technologies Symposium from SENDAI, 25–28 November 2024, Sendai, Japan
5 November 2024
MDPI INSIGHTS: The CEO's Letter #17 - OA Week, Basel Open Day, Beijing Graphene Forum
Welcome to the MDPI Insights: The CEO's Letter.
In these monthly letters, I will showcase two key aspects of our work at MDPI: our commitment to empowering researchers and our determination to facilitating open scientific exchange.
Opening Thoughts
Open Access Week: Forging the Future of Open Access through Global Reach and Collaboration
From 21 to 27 October, we celebrated International Open Access Week (OAW), highlighting the importance of making research accessible to everyone. This campaign reinforced our commitment to advancing open access (OA) and showcased how we are helping research communities worldwide adopt OA as their standard.
“OA publishing is now a cornerstone of global research”
Throughout the week, we featured MDPI’s efforts to support quality open research through blog posts on topics such as how Research Integrity Promotes OA Practices, our Preprints.org platform, and supporting societies with different OA models. These initiatives capture our commitment to making research more inclusive and accessible to all.
OA publishing is now a cornerstone of global research, with more researchers choosing OA over traditional paywalled models, and embracing new, community-driven models.
Benefits of Open Access and Open Research
- Accelerated Discoveries: OA speeds up scientific progress by allowing immediate access to findings, enabling researchers to build on each other’s work faster.
- Community-Led Innovation: Open research empowers communities to manage their own platforms, creating collaboration and shared knowledge.
- Increased Visibility: OA broadens the reach of your research, leading to greater recognition, collaboration, and impact.
- Cross-Disciplinary Connections: By removing financial and geographical barriers, OA unites diverse fields, sparking innovation across disciplines.
MDPI Singapore Celebrates Open Access Week
MDPI Singapore also hosted its first-ever OAW event at the Marina Bay Sands Convention Centre, bringing together academics, researchers, and students to discuss the future of open scholarship. Conversations focused on the potential of new publishing models, alternative funding strategies, and the importance of communicating research to wider audiences.
As OA evolves, MDPI remains a committed partner in advancing open science and creating a transparent, inclusive research environment. For a full recap of the week’s highlights and resources, visit our campaign page.
Impactful Research
MDPI Connection to Nobel-Winning Protein Research
David Baker, an American biochemist, and Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper, two scientists from Google DeepMind, have been awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their groundbreaking advancements in better understanding the structure of proteins, the molecular engines of life’s processes.
One half of the prize was awarded to Professor David Baker from the University of Washington for his development of revolutionary protein design software enabling the creation of novel proteins for vaccines, nanomaterials, and sensors. Prof. Baker co-authored a 2016 paper in MDPI’s Toxins journal on protein-based therapeutics.
Meanwhile, DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper received recognition for AlphaFold, the AI model that predicts protein structures from amino acid sequences, fulfilling a long-held scientific dream.
“We congratulate this year’s Nobel laureates for their groundbreaking contributions to the study of life”
Nobel Prize Laureates Entrust MDPI with Their Research
As at October 2024, 45 Nobel laureates had contributed to more than 115 articles across
35 MDPI journals. The privilege of hosting the research of such contributors, who significantly influence the open access movement, resonates deeply with our editorial teams.
We are proud to list the names of Pierre Agostini, Hiroshi Amano, Werner Arber, Aaron Ciechanover, Robert H. Grubbs, Oliver Hart, Gerard ‘t Hooft, Michael Houghton, Harald zur Hausen, Katalin Karikó, Jean-Marie Lehn, Gérard Mourou, Ferid Murad, Shuji Nakamura, William Nordhaus, Kostya S. Novoselov, Giorgio Parisi, Charles M. Rice, Alvin E. Roth, Donna Strickland, K. Barry Sharpless, George F. Smoot, Anne L’Huillier, Drew Weissman, Kurt Wüthrich, Ada Yonath, Tomas Lindahl, Thomas C. Südhof, Stanley B. Prusiner, Roger Kornberg, Robert F. Engle, Richard J. Roberts, Ōmura Satoshi, Kenneth J. Arrow, John B. Goodenough, Jennifer Doudna, Hamilton Othanel Smith, Eric R. Kandel, Carlo Rubbia, Bernard Feringa, Barry J. Marshall, Anthony J. Leggett, Andrew Victor Schally, and David Baker.
Notable MRNA Published in Cells
On 7 October 2024, the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was jointly awarded to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for the discovery of microRNA and its role in post-transcriptional gene regulation.
MicroRNAs are proving to be fundamentally important for how organisms develop and function. Some interesting papers about microRNA research are published in the MDPI journal Cells. I invite you browse through the notable papers related to microRNA research in Cells.
Inside MDPI
Basel Open Day
On 21 October, we held the Basel Open Day at our headquarters, welcoming a group of journal Editors-in-Chief (EiC) and Editorial Board Members (EBMs) for a full-day workshop. The event featured presentations and discussions on MDPI’s latest editorial updates, data integrity policies, society collaborations, and local market insights.
The following MDPI journals were represented during the visit: Physics, Journal of Personalized Medicine (JPM), Sci, Remote Sensing, Animals, Cells, Buildings, Histories, Sensors, and International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERPH).
This was a great opportunity to showcase our new office space while gathering feedback from leading journal stakeholders. To get everyone on the same page, we took 60 minutes for round-table introductions, which helped set a collaborative tone and ground us in MDPI’s mission of disseminating open science.
“This was a great opportunity to gather feedback from leading journal stakeholders”
The general feedback from the day highlighted positive developments around our editorial and ethics policies, as well as areas for improvement, including flexibility regarding reviewer deadlines. There was a genuine appreciation and push for our ongoing efforts to share more about MDPI, including company updates and promoting high-quality research through our blog, announcements, and social media channels, which we have been growing and expanding.
Our Basel Open Day was a positive experience, bringing together key journal stakeholders and gathering insights to guide MDPI’s continued engagement with the academic community. We look forward to hosting future events of this kind and welcoming more scholars to our headquarters in Basel, Switzerland.
Coming Together for Science
ncRNA 2024 Conference in Basel
I am pleased to share that we held Non-coding RNA World 2024: Exploring Mechanisms, Designing Medicines (ICM 2024) in Basel, Switzerland this past 7–9 October.
The three-day event attracted just over 100 attendees, including two Chairs, 10 invited speakers and two keynotes from Prof. Mauro Giacca and Prof. Ling-Ling Chen. Of the presentations on site, there were 35 posters and 44 oral presentations.
The overall feedback was positive, with people enjoying the intimate event and the unique activities offered, including a guided tour around Basel’s Old Town (a must-see for anyone visiting the city) and a memorable conference dinner.
It was cool to see the winners of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine announced during the conference days. This was exciting for attendees, as the winners discovered a new class of RNA molecules (miRNAs). As one invited speaker put it, “It's exciting to be among fellows when something that important for the field is announced.”
“It's exciting to be among fellows when something that important for the field is announced”
Every attendee receives a conference survey, and I’m always pleased to see a high percentage of ‘Very Satisfied’ responses when asked about ‘treatment from conference personnel’. Kudos to our conference team for meeting our attendees’ needs. These events are a great opportunity for us to reach new audiences, as 92% of the respondents had never been to an MDPI conference, so I am thrilled to see us connecting with a new demographic of your researchers in the RNA field.
A special thank-you to our partnering societies The Epigenetics Society, The French Society of Genetics, LS2 / USGEB (Union of Swiss Societies for Experimental Biology), and The RNA Biology Group, as well as to our sponsors New England Biolabs and Arraystar for their support of the ncRNA 2024 conference. I am also pleased to report that we presented two awards, including the Best Presentation Award and two Best Poster Award, recognizing the contributions of our participants.
Upcoming In-Person Event
27–29 November 2024
Pharmaceuticals 2024 – Recent Advances in Pharmaceutical Sciences Towards a Healthy Life
Location: Barcelona, Spain
The discovery of new molecules, their properties, and actions to enhance human health and quality of life.
Find more upcoming MDPI events here.
Closing Thoughts
Beijing Graphene Forum 2024
I am pleased to share that we had a successful time at the Beijing Graphene Forum 2024, which drew around 1,000 attendees, including Konstantin Novoselov (2015 Nobel Prize in Physics) and other high-profile scholars in materials science and chemistry. It was a great opportunity to present MDPI on the big stage, with university presidents from institutions such as Peking University also in attendance.
I had the honour of awarding Prof. Zhongfan Liu, Chairman of the Chemical Science Committee, with a medal and presenting certificates to the members of the Chemical Science Committee; this is an important initiative to help expand MDPI’s journals and influence in China. These are highly respected scholars, and we enjoyed connecting with them over lunch as well.
“This is an important initiative to help expand MDPI’s journals and influence in China”
I also had the chance to speak about MDPI and open access, giving a five-minute speech during the opening ceremony and a 20-minute presentation at the close. MDPI hosted a sub-forum where both academic scholars and MDPI members shared insights, and we engaged with attendees at our MDPI booth.
This was a great opportunity to spotlight MDPI as the main publishing partner for the event, and I was proud to represent us on stage. We also met with scholars to discuss topics such as their publishing needs and institutional policies, open access, impact journals, and IOAP.
Chief Executive Officer
MDPI AG
1 November 2024
Meet Us at the 2nd International Conference on Construction Project Management and Construction Engineering, 20–23 November 2024, Sydney, Australia
30 October 2024
Applied Sciences Webinar | New Challenges in Urban Underground Engineering, 11 November 2024
Welcome to this online seminar, which is technically supported by MDPI. The purpose of this online seminar is to provide a mini forum to promote scientific research on urban underground engineering that has emerged in recent years. With the increasing exploitation of underground space and construction of high-rise buildings in urban areas, numerous underground projects have emerged, constantly expanding in scale and depth. However, during the construction of urban underground engineering, various issues arise such as penetrative destruction, local dewatering, uplift pressure, and corrosivity. While research on urban land and underground space currently focuses primarily on engineering technology, a comprehensive analysis of the entire situation is necessary. To promote the scientific study on urban underground engineering, we have launched a Special Issue in Applied Science entitled “New Challenges in Urban Underground Engineering”.
We have received eight submissions and two of them have been published. We are hoping researchers and scientists who are working on issues related to this Special Issue will consider submitting their papers to this Special Issue. Today, we are happy to have three speakers join this online seminar: Dr. Qian Fang, Dr. Xuesong Cheng, and Dr. Sulei Zhang. These speakers are young doctors and have worked on urban underground engineering-related studies. They will present what they have achieved and what they have found.
Date: 11 November 2024 at 3:00 a.m. CET | 10:00 a.m. CST Asia
Webinar ID: 874 6557 8652
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information on how to join the webinar. Registrations with academic institutional email addresses will be prioritized.
Unable to attend? Register anyway and we will let you know when the recording is available to watch.
Register now for free!
Program:
|
Speaker/Presentation |
Time in CET |
Time in CST Asia |
|
Prof. Dr. Pengfei Li Chair Introduction |
03:00–03:10 a.m. |
10:00–10:10 a.m. |
|
Prof. Dr. Qian Fang AI in Tunnel Engineering |
03:10–03:30 a.m. |
10:10–10:30 a.m. |
|
Dr. Xuesong Cheng System Safety Performance and Resilience of Deep Excavation and Underground Engineering |
03:30–03:50 a.m. |
10:30–10:50 a.m. |
|
Prof. Dr. Sulei Zhang Collapse Mechanism of the Soil–Sand–Rock Composite Strata Under Disturbance During Subway Tunnel Construction |
03:50–04:10 a.m. |
10:50–11:10 a.m. |
|
Q&A Session |
04:10–04:20 a.m. |
11:10–11:20 a.m. |
|
Prof. Dr. Pengfei Li Closing of Webinar |
04:20–04:30 a.m. |
11:20–11:30 a.m. |
Webinar Chair and Keynote Speakers:
- Prof. Dr. Pengfei Li (Chair), Key Laboratory of Urban Security and Disaster Engineering of the Ministry of Education, Beijing University of Technology, China;
- Prof. Dr. Qian Fang, Key Laboratory for Urban Underground Engineering of Ministry of Education, Beijing Jiaotong University, China;
- Dr. Xuesong Cheng, Department of Civil Engineering, Tianjin University, China;
- Prof. Dr. Sulei Zhang, School of Civil Engineering, Qingdao University of Technology, China.
Relevant Special Issue:
“New Challenges in Urban Underground Engineering”
Guest Editors: Prof. Dr. Pengfei Li and Prof. Dr. Qian Fang
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 28 February 2025
For more information about this webinar, please visit the following link: https://sciforum.net/event/ApplSci-17.
29 October 2024
Meet Us at the 10th National Conference on Applied Geochemistry, 1–3 November 2024, Kunming, China
17 October 2024
Applied Sciences Webinar | Advances in Multiphase Electric Drives and Control, 23 October 2024
The purpose of this online seminar is to provide a mini forum to promote research advances in electric drives and power conversion as agents for improving the efficiency and reliability of the systems in which they are included. This webinar focuses on the regulation of multiphase electric drives.
Addressing the global energy situation requires the application of more competitive technological solutions in both the production and consumption of energy. In this context, green energy generation, electric mobility and more electric industrial processes are considered exciting solutions to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and optimize energy consumption. All of these solutions inherently include electric drives and have thus caught the attention of researchers involved in the development of electric vehicles, energy conversion systems and high-performance industrial motor applications. These fields of work focus on enhancing the performance of electric drives from different approaches, ranging from the use of new semiconductor technology to the introduction of new control strategies and from the improved design of electrical machines to new VSC topologies. Multiphase electric drives are a compelling choice for variable-speed industrial applications with more demanding requirements as they offer enhanced fault tolerance and a reduced per-phase current rating without increasing the rated voltage; their control has led to the creation of an extensive field of research. For this reason, this webinar and the related Special Issue aim to provide insight into the state of the art and advances pertaining to electric drives and multiphase electric drives, along with their regulation schemes and other progresses in power conversion. Researchers working on topics related to this Special Issue may wish to submit papers. There will be five speakers attending this online webinar: Prof. Cruz, Dr. Gonçalves, Prof. Rodas, Prof. Ayala and Prof. Duran. They are senior researchers and have worked on multiphase electric drive-related studies.
Date: 23 October 2024 at 4:00 p.m. CEST | 10:00 a.m. EDT | 10:00 p.m. CST Asia
Webinar ID: 814 4229 3439
Webinar website: https://sciforum.net/event/ApplSci-16
Register now for free!
Program:
| Speaker | Presentation Title | Time in CEST | Time in EDT | Time in CST Asia |
| Prof. Ignacio González-Prieto and Prof. Juan José Aciego Gallardo | Chair Introduction | 4:00–4:10 p.m. | 10:00–10:10 a.m. | 10:00–10:10 p.m. |
| Prof. Jorge Rodas and Prof. Magno Ayala | FCS-MPC in Six-Phase Drives | 4:10–4:40 p.m. | 10:10–10:40 a.m. | 10:10–10:40 p.m. |
| Prof. Sérgio M. A. Cruz and Dr. Pedro F. C. Gonçalves | Multiphase PMSG | 4:40–5:10 p.m. | 10:40–11:10 a.m. | 10:40–11:10 p.m. |
| Prof. Mario J. Durán | Impact of High Switching Frequencies on FCS-MPC | 5:10–5:40 p.m. | 11:10–11:40 a.m. | 11:10–11:40 p.m. |
| Q&A Session | 5:40–6:10 p.m. | 11:40 a.m.–12:10 p.m. | 11:40 p.m.–12:10 a.m. | |
| Prof. Ignacio González-Prieto and Prof. Juan José Aciego Gallardo | Closing of Webinar | 6:10–6:15 p.m. | 12:10–12:15 p.m. | 12:10–12:15 a.m. |
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information on how to join the webinar. Registrations with academic institutional email addresses will be prioritized.
If you are unable to attend, register anyway and we will let you know when the recording is available to watch.
Webinar Chairs and Keynote Speakers:
- Prof. Ignacio Gonzalez Prieto, Electrical Engineering Department, Industrial Engineering School, University of Malaga, Spain;
- Prof. Juan José Aciego-Gallardo, Electrical Engineering Department, Industrial Engineering School, University of Malaga, Spain;
- Prof. Jorge Rodas, Laboratory of Power and Control Systems, Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad Nacional de Asuncion, Paraguay;
- Prof. Magno Ayala, Laboratory of Power and Control Systems, Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad Nacional de Asuncion, Paraguay;
- Prof. Sérgio Cruz, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Coimbra, Portugal;
- Dr. Pedro F. Gonçalves, Vestas Wind Systems A/S, Hedeager 42, 8200 Aarhus N, Denmark;
- Prof. Mario J. Durán, Department of Electrical Engineering of University of Málaga, Spain.
Relevant Special Issue:
“Advances in Electric Drives and Control”
Guest Editors: Juan J. Aciego-Gallardo and Ignacio Gonzalez Prieto
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 January 2025
16 October 2024
MDPI's Newly Launched Journals in September 2024
Five new journals covering a diverse range of subjects launched their inaugural issue in September 2024. Like other journals in MDPI’s portfolio, these journals are dedicated to sharing the latest research through open access, reflecting our commitment to making knowledge accessible to all.
We extend our sincere gratitude to the Editorial Board Members for their dedication to the launch and development of our new journals. Each journal will ensure its high-quality output via excellent editorial and rigorous peer-review processes so that the published articles achieve significant impact and broad visibility.
We invite you to explore and learn more about these new journals below.
| Journal | Founding Editor-in-Chief | Journal Topics (Selected) |
 |
Prof. Dr. Nejat Düzgüneş, University of the Pacific, USA | Editorial | view inaugural issue | biological therapy and stem-cell therapy; drug therapy; chemotherapy; radiation and other nonsurgical therapeutic strategies | view journal scope | submit an article |
 |
Prof. Dr. Magda Tsolaki, Greek Federation of Alzheimer’s Disease, Greece; Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece | Editorial | view inaugural issue | surgical/procedural complications; complications; perioperative adverse events; postoperative adverse events | view journal scope | submit an article |
 |
Prof. Dr. Steven R. Fassnacht, Colorado State University, USA; Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere, USA | Editorial | view inaugural issue | ice as a mineral; atmospheric ice; sea ice; freshwater ice; ice sheets; ice caps and ice shelves | view journal scope | submit an article |
 |
Dr. Francisco Epelde, Hospital Universitari Parc Tauli, Spain; University Autonoma of Barcelona, Spain | Editorial | view inaugural issue | hospital management; hospital facilities; hospital services; hospital risk management; health law | view journal scope | submit an article |
 |
Prof. Dr. Nicola Ferri, University of Padova, Italy | Editorial | view inaugural issue | lipids in cells and whole organisms; lipid structure and function; lipid products and processes; dietary lipids and nutrition | view journal scope | submit an article |
We wish to thank everyone who has supported the development of open access publishing. You are welcome to send an application here or contact the New Journal Committee (newjournal-committee@mdpi.com) if you would like to create more new journals.
14 October 2024
Applied Sciences | World Food Day 2024—“Right to Foods for a Better Life and a Better Future”
