Announcements

Conference: The 13th China Satellite Navigation Conference
Date: 16–18 November 2022
Place: Beijing, China

Sensors (ISSN: 1424-8220) will be attending the 13th China Satellite Navigation Conference as an exhibitor. This meeting will take place from 16 to 18 November in Beijing, China.

The China Satellite Navigation Conference (CSNC) is an open academic exchange platform. It aims to strengthen academic innovation and promote the cooperation and exchange of satellite navigation systems, strengthen technological innovation and promote the engineering construction of satellite navigation systems, strengthen theoretical innovation and promote the progress of satellite navigation theories, and strengthen application innovation and promote the scientific development of satellite navigation industry. The conference has been successfully held for 12 years and has produced a large number of excellent results in academic, technical, theoretical, application, and talent aspects.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Sensors;
• Remote Sensing;
• Atmosphere;
• Aerospace;
• Technologies;
• Drones;
• Signals;
• Smart Cities;
• AI;
• Geomatics.

If you are planning to attend this conference, please do not hesitate to start an online conversation with us (booth #B18). Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person and answering any questions that you may have. For more information about the conference and virtual booth, please visit the following website: https://www.beidou.org/annualmeeting.html.

MDPI will be attending the 2022 MTG of JPS Indoor Environment, held in Tokyo, Japan, from 1 to 2 December 2022. The theme of this year’s conference is the preservation of human health and the maintenance of comfortable environments. Throughout the conference, prominent researchers and government officials will give keynote speeches on pressing issues of indoor environment. The 2022 MTG of JPS Indoor Environment provides an excellent opportunity for participants from industry and academia to keep up to date with the latest trends in indoor environmental problems.

During this conference, MDPI will welcome researchers from different backgrounds to visit and share their latest views and research with us.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Sustainability;
• Atmosphere;
• Toxics.

If you plan on attending this conference, feel free to stop by our booth. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person to answer any questions that you may have.

For more information about the conference, please see the following link:  https://confit.atlas.jp/guide/event/siej2022/static/message.

MDPI will be attending the 17th International Conference on Waste Management and Technology (ICWMT17), held in Sanya, China, from 19 to 22 November 2022. The theme of this year’s conference is “Synergizing the Reduction of Pollution and Carbon Emission”. Throughout the conference, prominent researchers and government officials will give keynote speeches on pressing issues of solid waste management. ICWMT17 provides an excellent opportunity for participants from industry and academia to keep up to date with the latest trends in solid waste management.

During this conference, MDPI will welcome researchers from different backgrounds to visit and share their latest views as well as research with us.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Sustainability (leading journal);
• Environments;
• IJERPH;
• Atmosphere;
• Buildings;
• Resources;
• Smart Cities;
• Sustainable Chemistry;
• Pollutants;
• Microplastics.

If you plan on attending this conference, feel free to stop by our booth. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person to answer any questions that you may have.

For more information about the conference, please see the following link: http://www.bcrc.cn/icwmt/.

Peer Review Week began 19 September 2022 under the theme of “Research Integrity: Creating and Supporting Trust in Research”. Through various blog articles, podcast, and webinar, we discussed this crucial subject throughout the week, celebrating the essential role peer review plays in maintaining research quality.

To begin, we held a Webinar on the topic. Professor Peter W. Choate and Dr. Emmanuel Obeng-Gyasi joined Dr. Ioana Craciun, one of MDPI’s scientific officers, for an in-depth discussion.

We invite you to view the event recording:

During the week, the MDPI Blog in a series articles highlighted how good Peer Review safeguards research integrity. The following topics were covered:

• Peer Review Week 2022
• Research Integrity
• What We’ve Learned About Peer Review Reports
• 4 Steps to the Perfect Peer Review Report
• How to Write the Perfect Peer Review Report: An Interview
• Inviting Great Peer Reviewers

In a new edition of Insight Faster, an MDPI podcast, we were delighted to talk to the co-chairs of the Peer Review Week committee, Jayashree Rajagopalan (Senior Manager of Global Community Engagement for CACTUS) and Danielle Padula (Head of Marketing and Community Development at Scholastica) to get their take on this year’s event and its related topics.

You can find the Podcast here.

We hope you enjoy the contents!

Conference: iCACGP-IGAC 2022
Date: 10–15 September 2022
Place: Manchester, UK

MDPI will be attending the iCACGP-IGAC 2022 as an exhibitor from 10 to 15 September 2022 in Manchester, UK.

We are delighted to host the iCACGP-IGAC Joint International Atmospheric Chemistry Conference in Manchester in 2022. This is a leading global atmospheric chemistry conference, run quadrennially alongside the biannual IGAC Conferences that attracts approximately 600 international scientists, industry leaders, and early-career researchers from around the world, and includes many leading funding agencies.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Atmosphere;
• Sustainability;
• Environments;
• Geographies.

Please do not hesitate to reach out if you plan on attending this conference. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person and answering any questions that you might have.

For more information about the conference, please visit the following website: https://www.icacgp-igac-2022.org/.

Atmosphere (IF 3.110, ISSN: 2073-4433) is an online open access journal that was first published in 2010. Atmosphere has published more than 6000 papers since its inception, and the journal has been indexed by SCIE since 2013 whilst also being indexed by Ei Compendex, Scopus (2021 CiteScore: 3.7), and other relevant databases. Atmosphere adheres to rigorous peer review and editorial processes and publishes only high-quality manuscripts that address important issues related to the atmosphere. Manuscripts are peer reviewed, and a first decision is provided to authors approximately 15.8 days after submission; acceptance to publication is undertaken in 2.7 days (median values for papers published in this journal in the first half of 2022). Atmosphere is pleased to be formally affiliated with the Working Group of Air Quality in European Citizen Science Association (ECSA) and the Italian Aerosol Society (IAS), and their members receive a discount on the article processing charge.

Editor-in-Chief

Name: Prof. Dr. Ilias Kavouras
Interests: Environmental, Occupational, and Geospatial Health
Affiliation: Sciences, CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, USA

Prof. Dr. Ilias Kavouras is a professor of Environmental Health Sciences at CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy in New York City. He is trained as a chemist and an environmental health scientist. His research integrates natural and health sciences in understanding atmospheric dynamics, from the release of contaminants, their fate in the atmosphere and the role of physical and chemical processes to exposure pathways, and their relationship with biological mechanisms of toxicity and clinical outcomes. He is particularly interested in the interplay of climate change with atmospheric physical and chemical processes and the resultant environmental and health impacts.

Prof. Dr. Kavouras has been affiliated with research and academic institutes in the US and abroad, working on the aforementioned big-picture topics to address local and regional priorities while considering their diverse and unique characteristics. His experimental study designs include benchtop laboratory analysis and in vitro toxicology, method development, field studies, community-based exposure and health studies, and integrated geospatial, inverse, and epidemiological modeling.

Associate Editor

Name: Prof. Dr. Xuejun Liu
Affiliation: Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University (CAU), China

Prof. Dr. Xuejun Liu is a professor and a doctoral supervisor at the School of Resources and Environment, China Agricultural University, a member of the Nutrient Cycle and Environment Professional Committee of the Chinese Society of Plant Nutrition and Fertilizers, a member of the Nitrogen Working Committee of the Chinese Soil Society, a member of the Agricultural Resources Utilization Professional Committee of the Chinese Society of Natural Resources, and a member of the Ministry of Environmental Protection. He is a member of the overall expert group of the public relations project on the causes of heavy pollution and control, the chief expert of the research office of the National Air Pollution Prevention and Control Public Relations Center, and serves as a judge or an Editorial Board Member for numerous academic journals such as EST, AE, and Ecology Journal. He has long been engaged in the research of nitrogen cycle in farmland, environmental nutrients, and quantification of soil acidification that has led to the formation of distinctive features in atmospheric nitrogen deposition and nitrogen environmental effects. He has published more than 300 scientific research papers, 180 SCI papers in international journals, 1 English monograph, and participated in the publication of 14 monographs. In 2006, he was selected into the New Century Excellent Talents Support Program of the Ministry of Education. In 2012, he won the Outstanding Mentor Award of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 2013, he became the chief scientist of the national 973 Project. In 2014, he was funded by the National Outstanding Youth Fund Talent Plan; in 2016, he was selected as a young and middle-aged scientific and technological innovation leader in the national “10,000-person plan”; in 2017, he was selected as the “Scientific Chinese” (2016) Person of the Year; and in 2021, he was recognized as an “Elsevier 2020 China Highly Cited Scholar” and included in the “2020 Top 2% of the World’s Top Scientists” list.

Section Editor-in-Chief

Name: Dr. Daniele Contini
Affiliation: Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate, National Research Council, Str. Prv. Lecce-Monteroni km 1.2, 73100 Lecce, Italy

Dr. Daniele Contini is a Research Director at ISAC-CNR. His main research interests are focused on four main lines: (i) identification and characterization of atmospheric particulate matter sources using both high-resolution temporal measurements and receptor models based on the chemical composition of the particulate; (ii) health and toxicological effects of atmospheric particulate matter due to both natural and anthropogenic sources; (iii) study of atmospheric particulate dynamics in the surface boundary layer with particular attention to emission and deposition processes; (iv) analysis and parameterization of the dispersion of atmospheric pollutants also using physical modeling on a reduced scale in a wind tunnel and/or in a hydraulic vein.

Throughout his career, he has established numerous and successful research collaborations with leading international groups in the field of atmospheric and climate sciences. He has managed a number of important projects for public administrations and private companies. Dr. Daniele Contini has served as President of the Italian Aerosol Society (IAS) since 2018 and is co-chair of the working group “Atmospheric Aerosol Studies” of the European Aerosol Assembly. He manages the Environmental-Climate Observatory of Lecce, regional station of the GAW/WMO-Global Atmosphere Watch network and station of the ACTRIS network.

Highly Cited Article Recommendations:

“The Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) Monthly Analysis (New Version 2.3) and a Review of 2017 Global Precipitation”
Atmosphere 2018, 9(4), 138; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos9040138
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/9/4/138

The new Version 2.3 of the Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) Monthly analysis is described in terms of changes made to improve the homogeneity of the product, especially after 2002. These changes include corrections to cross-calibration of satellite data inputs and updates to the gauge analysis. Over-ocean changes starting in 2003 resulted in an overall precipitation increase of 1.8% after 2009. Updating the gauge analysis to its final, high-quality version increases the global land total by 1.8% for the post-2002 period. These changes correct a small, incorrect dip in the estimated global precipitation over the last decade given by the earlier Version 2.2. The GPCP analysis is also used to describe global precipitation in 2017. The general La Niña pattern for 2017 is noted, and the evolution from the early 2016 El Niño pattern is described. The 2017 global value is one of the highest for the 1979–2017 period, exceeded only by 2016 and 1998 (both El Niño years), and reinforces the small positive trend. Results for 2017 also reinforce significant trends in precipitation intensity (on a monthly scale) in the tropics. These results for 2017 indicate the value of the GPCP analysis, in addition to research, for climate monitoring.

“Evaluating the Hydrological Cycle over Land Using the Newly- Corrected Precipitation Climatology from the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC)”
Atmosphere 2017, 8(3), 52; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos8030052
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/8/3/52

The 2015 release of the precipitation climatology from the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC) for 1951–2000, based on climatological normals of about 75,100 rain gauges, allows for quantification of mean land surface precipitation as part of the global water cycle. In GPCC’s 2011- release, a bulk climatological correction was applied to compensate for gauge undercatch. In this paper, we derive an improved correction approach based on the synoptic weather reports for the period 1982–2015. The compared results show that the climatological approach tends to overestimate the correction for Central and Eastern Europe, especially in the northern winter, and in other regions throughout the year. Applying the mean weather-dependent correction to the GPCC’s uncorrected precipitation climatology for 1951–2000 gives a value of 854.7 mm of precipitation per year (excluding Antarctica) or 790 mm for the global land surface. The warming of nearly 1 K relative to pre-industrial temperatures is expected to be accompanied by a 2%–3% increase in global (land and ocean) precipitation. However, a comparison of climatology for 30-year reference periods from 1931–1960 up to 1981–2010 reveals no significant trend for land surface precipitation. This may be caused by the large variability of precipitation, the varying data coverage over time, and other issues related to the sampling of rain-gauge networks. The GPCC continues to enlarge and further improve the quality of its database and will generate precipitation analyses with homogeneous data coverage over time. Another way to reduce the sampling issues is through the combination of rain gauge-based analyses with remote sensing (i.e., satellite or radar) datasets.

Special Issue Recommendations:

“Artificial Intelligence for Meteorology Applications”
Edited by Dr. Wei Fang, Prof. Dr. Victor S. Sheng and Dr. Qiguang Wang
Submission Deadline: 15 September 2022
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/atmosphere/special_issues/AI_Meteorology

“Materials, Technologies, and Methods for the Building Indoor Comfort”
Edited by Dr. Manuela Neri
Submission Deadline: 26 October 2022
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/atmosphere/special_issues/building_indoor_comfort

“Between Meso-Scale and Local Scale: Downscaling Weather Forecast and Upscaling Atmospheric Dispersion”
Edited by Dr. Patrick Armand
Submission Deadline: 17 November 2022
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/atmosphere/special_issues/downscaling_weather

The 2021 citation metrics have been released in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR), and we’re pleased to announce the following results for MDPI journals:

For more information on Impact Factors and what it means to index academic journals, please visit our related blog posts.

* Journals given their first Impact Factor in 2022

Source: 2021 Journal Impact Factors, Journal Citation Reports ^TM (Clarivate, 2022)

Conference: The 5th International Conference on Building Energy and Environment (COBEE 2022)
Date: 25–29 July 2022
Place: Montréal, Canada + Online

Buildings (ISSN: 2075-5309) will be attending the 5th International Conference on Building Energy and Environment as an exhibitor. This meeting will be held in Canada and online from 25 to 29 July 2022.

Concordia University is proud to host the 5th International Conference on Building Energy and Environment (COBEE 2022), providing a platform for discussing building energy and environmental issues in addition to initiating collaboration among researchers, environmental scientists, architects, facility managers, and policymakers. We look forward to welcoming you and having you experience the city’s unique culture and joie de vivre. There is a profusion of sights, sounds, and flavors to enjoy, all within reach of the convention venue. See you in Montréal!

The session topics covered will include the following:

• COVID-19, Pandemic, and Epidemic;
• Health and Indoor Air Quality, Ventilation;
• Thermal Comfort;
• Occupant-Centric Building Design and Controls;
• Building Renewables, Solar Buildings and Smart Grid;
• Urban Energy and Urban Microclimate;
• Wind Engineering, Aerodynamics and Urban Physics;
• Building Physics, Building Envelope and Materials;
• Thermal Storages;
• Smart Buildings and Smart Cities (Machine Learning, AI, IoT);
• Resilience and Climate Change;
• Building Mechanical System and Controls;
• Advanced Modeling and Building Simulations, CFD;
• Building Codes and Standards;
• Urban Green Infrastructure;
• Low / Zero Carbon Emission Buildings and Communities;
• Building Fire Safety.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Buildings;
• Energies;
• Atmosphere;
• Environments;
• Smart Cities;
• Applied Sciences;
• Climate;
• Computation.

If you are attending this conference, please feel free to start an online conversation with us. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person and answering any questions that you may have.

For more information about the conference and our booth, please visit the following link: https://www.cobee2022.org/index.html.

MDPI’s Young Investigator Awards recognize promising junior researchers, acknowledge their contributions, and enhance communication among scientists. We are proud to present the winners for the year 2021 in the “Environmental & Earth Sciences” category. The winners were selected by the journals’ editors.

We warmly congratulate the awarded young investigators for their outstanding contributions. MDPI will continue to provide support and recognition to the academic community.

Atmosphere:

• Shaojie Song, Harvard University, USA

Clean Technologies:

• Francesco Galiano, Institute on Membrane Technology of the National Research Council, Italy

Energies:

• Qilin Wang, University of Technology Sydney, Australia
• Christopher H. T. Lee, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health:

• Grace Vincent, Central Queensland University, Australia

Minerals:

• Antony Burnham, Australian National University, Australia

Remote Sensing:

• Celso Henrique Leite Silva Junior, National Institute for Space Research – INPE, Brasil; Agricultural Engineering Department of the State University of Maranhão – UEMA, Brazil

Sustainability:

• Baojie He, Chongqing University, China

Water:

• Stefanos Giannakis, Polytechnic University of Madrid, Spain

In order to acknowledge our reviewers, who so generously dedicate their time to reviewing papers and demonstrate diligence, professionalism, and timeliness when reviewing manuscripts, MDPI journals regularly offer outstanding reviewer awards to scholars who participate in the peer-review process.

We are proud to recognize winners for the year 2021 in the “Environmental & Earth Sciences” category for their outstanding contributions among extensive competition by presenting them with an Outstanding Reviewer Award.

We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all the winners on their achievement. MDPI will continue to provide support and recognition to the academic community.

Atmosphere:

• Hristo Chervenkov, National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology, Bulgaria
• Jouni Räisänen, University of Helsinki, Finland

Climate:

• Piotr F. Borowski, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Poland

Energies:

• Elena Lucchi, Institute for Renewable Energy, Italy
• Marcin Dębowski, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Poland
• Miroslav Variny, Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, Slovakia
• Piotr F. Borowski, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Poland
• Vedran Mrzljak, University of Rijeka, Croatia

Forests:

• Tomasz Oszako, Forest Research Institute, Poland
• Stelian Alexandru Borz, Transilvania University of Brasov, Romania
• Maricar Aguilos, North Carolina State University, USA
• Narayan Bhusal, Seoul National University, South Korea

Geosciences:

• Dave Waters, University of Oxford, UK

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health:

• Anuli Njoku, Southern Connecticut State University, USA
• Haruna Musa Moda, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
• Jesús Molina-Mula, University of BalearicIsland, Spain
• Katharina Diehl, Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany
• Katarzyna Tomaszek, Pedagogical University of Kracow, Poland
• Matteo Nioi, University of Cagliari, Italy
• Pablo A. Cantero-Garlito, Universidad de Castilla La Mancha, Spain
• Seoyong Kim, Ajou University, South Korea
• Andrzej Adamski, University of Information Technology and Management, Poland
• Adrian Curto, Faculty of Medicine, University of Salamanca, Spain
• Arkaitz Castañeda Babarro, University of Deusto, Spain
• Álvaro Francisco Lopes De Sousa, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal
• Agata Gabryelska, Medical University of Lodz, Poland
• Ana Reyes Menéndez, Rey Juan Carlos University, Spain
• Bartosz Dalewski, Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin, Poland
• Chong Chen, Yamaguchi University Graduate School of Medicine, Japan
• Carla Maria Batista Ferreira Pires, CBIOS-Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias-Escola de Ciências e Tecnologias da Saúde, Portugal
• Claudia Pisanu, University of Cagliari, Italy
• Emmanuel Obeng-Gyasi, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, USA
• Faisal F. Hakeem, King’s College London, UK
• Francisco Javier Fernández Carrasco, Punta de Europa Hospital, Spain
• Haewon Byeon, Inje University, South Korea
• HuiJun Chih, Curtin University, Australia
• Jerónimo Aragón Vela, University of Granada, Spain
• Joana Costa, University of Aveiro, Portugal,
• Joanne Lloyd, University of Wolverhampton, UK
• José Luis Romero-Bejar, University of Granada, Spain
• Laura Nathans, Human Development and Family Studies, Penn State Scranton, USA
• Mateusz Jankowski, Centre of Postgraduate Medical Education, Poland
• Matteo Riccò, Azienda USL-IRCCS di Reggio Emilia, Italy
• Nicola Döring, Technische Universität Ilmenau, Germany
• Nora Suleiman-Martos, University of Granada, Spain
• Russell Kabir, Anglia Ruskin University, UK
• Roy McConkey, University of Ulster, UK
• Sunhee Kim, Ajou University, South Korea
• Sol García-Germán, Centro de Estudios e Investigación para la Gestión de Riesgos Agrarios y Medioambientalesdisabled, Spain
• Sebastian Rutkowski, Opole University of Technology, Poland
• Tamás Berki, University of Szeged, Hungary
• Terence Moriarty, University of Northern Iowa, USA
• Pedro Antonio Martín Cervantes, University of Almería, La Cañada de San Urbano, Spain

ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information:

• Lemenkova Polina, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
• Andrew Newton, Nottingham Trent University, UK
• Dennis Edler, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany
• Lukáš Herman, Masaryk University, Czech Republic
• Marcela Bindzarova Gergelova, Technical University of Kosice, Slovakia

Land:

• Rahul Datta, Mendel University in Brno, Czech Republic
• Dirk H.R. Spennemann, Charles Sturt University, Australia
• Raimundo Jimenez-Ballesta, (Retired recently) Autonoma University of Madrid, Spain

Remote Sensing:

• Veraldo Liesenberg, Santa Catarina State University, Brazil
• Yady Tatiana Solano-Correa, University of Cauca, Colombia
• Francesco Marinello, University of Padova, Italy
• Pedro Melo-Pinto, Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal
• Ignacio Bosch, Universitat Politènica de València, Spain
• Juan Soria, University of Valencia, Spain
• Chiman Kwan, Signal Processing, Inc., USA
• Benoit Vozel, University of Rennes, France
• Giuseppe Casula, National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology Unit of Bologna, Italy
• Simone Cosoli, The University of Western Australia, Australia

Resources:

• Maria Economou-Eliopoulos, University of Athens, Greece

Toxics:

• Cynthia Rider, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, USA