Announcements

Dr. Sébastien R. Mouchet, winner of the 2018 Biomimetics Travel Award, is a postdoctoral fellow conducting research in the Natural Photonics group led by Prof. Pete Vukusic at the University of Exeter, UK, in collaboration with his former Ph.D. supervisor, Prof. Olivier Deparis, at the University of Namur, Belgium. His research focuses on fluorescence emission and coloration changes in natural photonic structures with the aim to develop bioinspired technological solutions for chemical sensing and biosensing.

Dr. Mouchet was awarded a 500 CHF prize to support his participation at the Living Light 2018 Conference in Cambridge, UK, 11–14 April 2018. The Living Light 2018 conference was organized this year by Dr. Silvia Vignolini (University of Cambridge, UK), an Editorial Board member of Biomimetics.

This biennial, interdisciplinary conference gathered together biologists, physicists, engineers, and chemists working in the field of natural photonics and bioinspired optics for four days of outstanding and insightful presentations. Dr. Mouchet presented his work on controlled fluorescence in beetles’ scales and structural color in Diptera, contributing both an oral and a poster presentation.

Read more about Dr. Mouchet’s research and his experience as an early-career researcher in our ‘Next Generation’ interview https://www.mdpi.com/2313-7673/3/2/10.

Dr. Sébastien R. Mouchet on controlled fluorescence in beetles’ scales. Image courtesy of Benjamin Droguet.

Dr. Sébastien R. Mouchet (left) on structural coloration in Diptera receiving his Travel Award certificate from Dr. Silvia Vignolini (right). Image courtesy of Miranda Sinnott-Armstrong.

We are pleased to announce the results of the first MDPI Writing Prize. We received a large number of entries from across the globe on the theme of “The Global Benefits of Open Research”. It was a pleasure to read so many original, well-researched and well-presented ideas, and the final choice was not an easy one. We are pleased to announce that the winners are as follows:

1st prize (500 CHF, Swiss knife and certificate)

Edmond Sanganyado, Shantou University, China

2nd prizes (250 CHF, Swiss knife and certificate)

Kamala T. Rajahgopal, Asia e University, Malaysia
Yin Zhixuan, Qingdao University of Technology, China

3rd prizes (100 CHF, Swiss knife and certificate)

Alexandra Ticea, Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Romania
Ankur Sarker, University of Virginia, USA
Daniel Attoye, United Arab Emirates University, UAE

Congratulations to all of them! The winning entries can be downloaded by clicking on the names above. A compilation of all entries will soon be available as an open access book.

The writing prize is sponsored by the MDPI English editing service.

At MDPI, we always want to keep you up to date. Even for already published articles, some corrections or minor changes may occur. To prevent you from missing any updates, from now on you will be able to access the latest version of any manuscript by clicking on the “check for updates” logo that you can find in the PDF file, even if you have saved the file on your computer.

We are proud to announce that MDPI is now a member of UKSG, the UK´s largest scholarly communications community. Through UKSG, different stakeholders share their knowledge and experience in order to improve the knowledge and information environment for researchers. UKSG´s members include universities, publishers, content providers, intermediaries, and other similar organisations. Members participate in discussions and events on issues around scholarly communications.

The UKSG Annual Conference and Exhibition is a flagship initiative from the UKSG and one of the most stimulating events in the scholarly communications calendar. It is held annually and attracts a large number of delegates. More information is available at https://www.uksg.org/events/annualconference

MDPI is delighted to be a part of this active community and we look forward to making our own contribution. We will continue to support organisations and initiatives that boost collaboration and vision within scholarly communication.

More information about UKSG can be found at https://www.uksg.org/. The full membership list is available at: https://www.uksg.org/members.

MDPI will be attending the 2018 E-MRS Spring Meeting and Exhibit. The conference is a plenary session to provide an international forum for discussing recent advances in the field of materials science. It will consist of 29 parallel symposia with invited speakers, oral and poster presentations. Representatives of the following open access journals will attend:

Applied Sciences
Biomimetics
Clean Technologies
Coatings
Journal of Manufacturing and Materials Processing (JMMP)
Materials
Metals
Nanomaterials
Polymers
Processes
Quantum Beam Science (QuBS)

The DORA initiative addresses the need for advanced approaches in the evaluation and measurement of the quality of scientific research outputs. It is a worldwide initiative covering all scholarly disciplines. MDPI proudly joins a list of more than 400 organizations around the world which support DORA’s recommendations for improving the way the quality of research results is evaluated.

More info can be found at http://www.ascb.org/dora/

We will be attending the 255th ACS National Meeting & Exposition. It is an interdisciplinary forum open to anyone with an interest in Chemistry and the related disciplines. Representatives of the following open access journals will attend:

Agronomy
Applied Sciences
Beverages
Biomimetics
Biosensors
C
Catalysts
ChemEngineering
Chemosensors
Coatings
Energies
Environments
Fibers
Foods
Gels
Inorganics
Journal of Marine Science and Engineering (JMSE)
Lubricants
Materials
Mathematics
Metals
Molecules
Nanomaterials
Polymers
Processes
Resources
Safety
Sensors
Separations
Sustainability
Symmetry
Toxins
Water

If you are also attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth (Booth #640). Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person to answer any questions you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit: https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/meetings/national-meeting.html?sc=home_meetings_170818_mtg_NO18_od

We will be attending the 2018 MRS Spring Meeting, which will be held in Phoenix, AZ, USA, 2 to 6 April 2018, representing the following open access journals:

Materials
Metals
Nanomaterials
Polymers
Coatings
Journal of Functional Biomaterials (JFB)
Quantum Beam Science (QuBS)
Biomimetics

Please come along to our booth to chat with our delegates about our journals. Our delegates will also answer any questions about online publishing and our journals. We look forward to meeting you in person in Phoenix!

For more information on the conference, please visit:
http://www.mrs.org/spring2018

The competition is still open until end of March! Please check out the banner for more details: https://mdpi-res.com/data/english-prize.pdf

We are delighted to announce that UCL Press has adopted MDPI's Journal Article & Management System, JAMS, including production services. JAMS is a modular, integrated editorial platform for academic publishers. It offers flexibility, ease-of-use, and is a fully integrated solution for the end-to-end management of scholarly journals. JAMS is based on the software used to publish MDPI’s portfolio of journals. 

Ian Caswell, UCL Press Journals Manager, says he is "excited to see UCL Press and MDPI partner together to implement the JAMS submission system for all UCL Press journals. The system offered a flexible, efficient and straightforward solution for our processes from author submission to ready for publication. I am grateful for the valuable experience and support MDPI have offered and look forward to developing our programme with an effective submission system in place.” Dr Martyn Rittman, MDPI’s Publishing Services Manager, adds, “We are proud to support one of the UK’s premier university presses in their publishing operation. This is an excellent way for us at MDPI to share our experience and knowledge, and benefit the research community beyond our own journals.”

JAMS combines services that are kept separate for many publishers. The entire editorial process, production and invoicing (e.g. for open access article processing charges) are fully integrated into a single platform. This allows for efficient, fast manuscript processing. For further information about JAMS, see https://www.mdpi.com/publishing_services.