Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce that Crystals will be granting the Travel Award to one junior scientist. The applications will be assessed by an Evaluation Committee consisting of senior scholars from the Crystals Editorial Board.

This award provides financial support for the winner to hold a presentation, present a poster, or both at an international conference on Crystallography in 2024.

Candidate Requirements:
– Postdoctoral fellows or PhD students.
– Plans to attend an international conference in 2024 (oral presentation or poster).

Required Application Documents:
– Information of the conference the applicant is planning to attend and the abstract that will be submitted.
– Curriculum Vitae and list of publications.
– Justification letter describing the focus of the research (max. 800 words).
– Letter of recommendation from the supervisor, research director, or department head, which also confirms the applicant’s status as a postdoctoral fellow/PhD student.

The winner will be awarded CHF 800 and a certificate.

Please submit your applications for the Crystals 2024 Travel Award online by 31 January 2024. The prizes will be awarded at the end of March 2024 and announced on the Crystals website.

Kind regards,
Crystals Editorial Office

Dear Colleagues,

The journal Crystals is inviting applications for the Crystals 2023 Best PhD Thesis Award. This prize will be awarded to a PhD student or recently qualified PhD fellow who has produced a highly anticipated thesis with great academic potential. The applications will be assessed by an evaluation committee led by the Editor-in-Chief, Helmut Cölfen.

Eligibility and Requirements
– The candidate must be a PhD student or recently qualified PhD fellow who has produced a highly anticipated thesis with great academic potential;
– The PhD thesis must be their original work;
– The PhD thesis must be defended in 2023.

Required Application Documents
– An executive summary of the PhD thesis in English of around 3000 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 (or certificate of studying at a school or research institute as a PhD student going to graduate or participate in graduation thesis defenses).

Selection 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 (CHF 500);
– Certificate;
– Offer to publish one paper free of charge in Crystals after peer review before the end of 2024.

The application deadline is 29 February 2024. The winner will be announced on the Crystals website by the end of April 2024.

Kind regards,
Crystals Editorial Office

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce the “Crystals 2022 Best Paper Award” for research and review articles published in Crystals from 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2022. One review and one research article will receive an award each. The papers will be selected after a thorough evaluation by the journal Award Committee led by the Editor-in-Chief, Prof. Dr. Helmut Cölfen.

Eligibility for the Award:
– Papers published in Crystals from 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2022;
– Open to all career levels;
– Both regular and Special Issue submissions will be considered.

Selection Criteria:
The papers will be selected by the journal Award Committee according to the following criteria:
– Scientific merit and broad impact;
– Originality of the research objectives and/or the ideas presented;
– Creativity of the study design or uniqueness of the approaches and concepts;
– Clarity of presentation;
– Citations and downloads.

Prizes:
– One review award: CHF 500 and a chance to publish a paper free of charge in Crystals in the year after peer review;
– One research article award: CHF 500 CHF and a chance to publish a paper free of charge in Crystals in the year after peer review.
– Each winner will also receive a certificate.

The winners will be announced on the journal website January 2024.

Kind regards,
Crystals Editorial Office

Dear Colleagues,

As Editor-in-Chief of Crystals, I am pleased to announce the winners of the Crystals 2023 Travel Award. The award has been granted to Dr. Zihao (Rei) Gao, post-doctoral fellow at the Institute of Materials Science of Madrid, Spanish National Research Council (ICMM, CSIC); and Dr. Rita Gelli, post-doctoral fellow at the Department of Chemistry “Ugo Schiff” & CSGI, University of Florence.

As the awardees, they will each receive an honorarium of CHF 800 and an electronic certificate.

With so many high-quality applicants, the evaluation process and final decision were challenging. We would like to thank all the applicants for submitting their diverse and fascinating range of research topics. On behalf of the assessment committee, I congratulate the winners on their accomplishments.

Prof. Dr. Helmut Cölfen
Editor-in-Chief, Crystals

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce the winners of the Crystals 2022 Outstanding Reviewer Award. The Crystals Editorial Board and Editorial Team would like to gratefully acknowledge the time and energy dedicated by reviewers in checking the manuscripts submitted to Crystals. It is due to their efforts that the high quality of the journal and quick turnaround are maintained.

Dr. Bogdan Vasyliv
Department of Hydrogen Technologies and Alternative Energy Materials, Karpenko Physico-Mechanical Institute, Lviv, Ukraine
Research Interests: solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) electrodes; YSZ–Ni cermet anodes for SOFC; hydrogenous atmosphere; hydrogen sulfide; RedOx treatment technique for Ni-containing anode cermets; Yttria-Stabilized Zirconia; Ti–Si–X and Ti–Cr–X composites; max phases; high temperature

Dr. Wojciech Dawidowski
Faculty of Electronics, Photonics and Microsystems, Wrocław University of Science and Technology, Wrocław, Poland
Research Interests: epitaxy, MOVPE, III-V semiconductors, dilute nitrides, solar cells, j-V-T characterization

The Prize for Each Winner:
– CHF 500;
– An opportunity to publish a paper free of charge in Crystals in 2023 after
peer review;
– A certificate.

Kind regards,
Crystals Editorial Office

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce that the winner of the Crystals 2022 Young Investigator Award is Prof. Dr. Mattia Biesuz.

Prof. Dr. Mattia Biesuz obtained a PhD in “Materials Engineering” at the University of Trento (Italy) in 2017 after defending a thesis on the flash-sintering mechanisms in alumina and glass-containing alumina ceramics. Since then, he has completed several research experiences as a PostDoc in China, the UK, the Czech Republic, and Italy.

His research interests currently include various sintering technologies for ceramics consolidation (flash sintering, spark plasma sintering, cold sintering, and ultrafast high-temperature sintering), field-assisted ion exchange in glasses and glass-ceramics, porous materials, polymer-derived ceramics, and high-entropy compounds. His research has been mostly focused on the underlying and peculiar physical‒chemical effects triggered by electric fields during ceramics processing.

As the awardee, Prof. Dr. Mattia Biesuz will receive an honorarium of CHF 1000, an offer to publish a paper free of charge before the end of 2023 in Crystals after peer-review, and an electronic certificate.

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 many excellent nominations.

Prof. Dr. Helmut Cölfen
Editor-in-Chief, Crystals

Dear Colleagues,

As the Editor-in-Chief of Crystals, it is my great pleasure to announce the winner of the Crystals 2022 Best PhD Thesis Award. This award is for a PhD student or recently qualified PhD who has produced a highly anticipated thesis with great academic potential.

The award has been granted to:
“Modeling and Design of a Phononic Crystal with Piezoelectric Defects for Broadband Energy Localization and Harvesting” by Dr. Soo-Ho Jo, Department of Mechanical Engineering at Seoul National University, South Korea.

Dr. Soo-Ho Jo is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Seoul National University, South Korea. He received his B.S and Ph.D. degrees in 2016 and 2021 from the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Seoul National University (Advisor: Byeng D. Youn), South Korea. His thesis has outstanding academic values in that it integrates phononic crystal-based wave tailoring with multiphysics (piezoelectric) phenomena for enhancing energy harvesting performance. His current research topics include (i) energy harvesting, (ii) phononic crystalincorporated ultrasonic transducers and sensors, (iii) metastructure-based wave manipulation, and (iv) modeling, analysis, and design of static and dynamic structures using artificial intelligence.

The winner will receive CHF 500, a certificate, and a chance to publish a paper free of charge after peer review in Crystals before the end of 2023.

On behalf of the evaluation committee, I congratulate the winner on his accomplishments. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the applicants for submitting their exceptional theses and thank the Award Committee for voting and helping with this award.

Prof. Dr. Helmut Cölfen
Editor-in-Chief, Crystals

Kind regards,
Crystals Editorial Office

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce the winners of the Crystals 2021 Best Paper Award. All of the papers published in 2021 in Crystals were considered for the award. After a thorough evaluation of the originality and significance of the papers, citations, and downloads, two winners were selected.

“Seeing Is Believing”—In-Depth Analysis by Co-Imaging of Periodically-Poled X-Cut Lithium Niobate Thin Films
By Sven Reitzig, Jie Zhao, Benjamin Kirbus, Shayan Mookherjea and Lukas M. Eng
Crystals 2021, 11(3), 288; doi:10.3390/cryst11030288

Concepts of Nucleation in Polymer Crystallization
By Jun Xu, Günter Reiter and Rufina G. Alamo
Crystals 2021, 11(3), doi:10.3390/cryst11030304

Each winner will receive CHF 500 and a chance to publish a paper in Crystals free of charge before 30 June 2024 after peer review. 

Please join us in congratulating the winners of Crystals 2021 Best Paper Award. We would also like to take this opportunity to thank all of our authors for their continued support of Crystals.

Crystals Editorial Office

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce the winners of the Crystals 2021 Outstanding Reviewer Award. The Crystals Editorial Board and Editorial Team would like to gratefully acknowledge the time and energy dedicated by reviewers in checking the manuscripts submitted to Crystals. It is due to their efforts that the high quality of the journal and quick turnaround are maintained.

Dr. Jacek Wojnarowicz
Laboratory of Nanostructures, Institute of High, Pressure Physics, Polish Academy of Science, Poland
Research Interests: nanomaterials; nanoparticles; characterization of nanomaterials, microwave synthesis; hydrothermal and solvothermal synthesis; microwave reactors; zinc oxide; doped zinc oxide; application of zinc oxide

Dr. Łukasz Szeleszczuk
Faculty of Pharmacy, Medical University of Warsaw, Poland
Research Interests: solid state nuclear magnetic resonance; density functional theory (DFT) calculations; polymorphism; crystal structure prediction

The Prize for Each Winner:
– CHF 500;
– An opportunity to publish a paper free of charge in Crystals in 2023 after peer review;
– A certificate.

Kind regards,
Crystals Editorial Office

Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of the Evaluation Committee, we are pleased to announce the winners of the Crystals 2021 Travel Awards. Two awards were granted to:

Dr. Gaojun Mao is a postdoctoral researcher at Laboratory for Nuclear Materials, Nuclear Energy and Safety Department, Paul Scherrer Institut in Switzerland. His current research focuses on probabilistic integrity analyses of critical reactor pressure vessels, nozzles and piping by considering active damage mechanisms such as stress corrosion cracking (SCC) and fatigue. He will attend the 26th International Conference on Structural Mechanics in Reactor Technology to be held 8 – 13 August 2021, in Berlin, Germany, which has been rescheduled to 2022 due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Mrs Lidia Bofill Herrera completed her Chemistry degree and started MsC in Pharmaceutical Chemistry in 2016. In 2018, she started her PhD in a project about Crystal Engineering of nutraceutical compounds and published research results in journals such as Crystal Growth & Design and CrystEngComm. She is planning to attend BACG 2022 or International School of Crystallization 2022.

Both recipients were each awarded 800 Swiss francs. We congratulate the winners on their accomplishments.

We would like to thank all the applicants for contributing with their highquality submissions, and the Evaluation Committee members for reviewing the numerous applications.

Crystals Editorial Office

Dear Colleagues,

The editorial team would like to congratulate the winners of the Crystals 10th Anniversary Best Paper Awards, who were chosen by a selection committee chaired by the Editor-in-Chief, Prof. Dr. Helmut Cölfen. Following a review process by the Evaluation Committee, four winners were selected. The recipients of the “Crystals 10th Anniversary Best Paper Awards” are as follows:

Article:

Rank 1 Award: (800 CHF + Certificate)
Crystal and Magnetic Structures in Layered, Transition Metal Dihalides and Trihalides
by Michael A. McGuire
Crystals 2017, 7(5), 121; 10.3390/cryst7050121

Rank 2 Award: (500 CHF + Certificate)
σ-Hole Interactions: Perspectives and Misconceptions
by Peter Politzer and Jane S. Murray
Crystals 2017, 7(7), 212; 10.3390/cryst7070212

Rank 3 Award: (300 CHF + Certificate)
σ-Hole Interactions of Covalently-Bonded Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Arsenic: A Survey of Crystal Structures
by Peter Politzer, Jane S. Murray, Goran V. Janjić and Snežana D. Zarić 
Crystals 2014, 4(1), 12-31; 10.3390/cryst4010012

Review:

Rank 1 Award: (800 CHF + Certificate)
Epitaxial Graphene on SiC: A Review of Growth and Characterization
By: Gholam Reza Yazdi, Tihomir Iakimov and Rositsa Yakimova
Crystals 2016, 6(5), 53; 10.3390/cryst6050053

Please join us in congratulating the winners of Crystals 10th Anniversary Best Paper Awards. We would also like to take this opportunity to thank all of our authors for your continued support of Crystals.

Prof. Dr. Helmut Cölfen
Editor-in-Chief, Crystals

Kind regards,
Crystals Editorial Office

Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of the Evaluation Committee, we are pleased to announce the winners of the Crystals Travel Awards 2020. Two awards were granted to:

Dr. Daria Szewczyk, a young researcher at the Institute of Low Temperature and Structure Research PAS Wroclaw, Poland. Her research is related to the thermal properties investigations, mostly in molecular crystals and glasses exhibiting different types of orientational disorder. She will attend the 23rd European Conference on the Dynamics of Molecular Systems (MOLEC 2020).

Ms. Laura Otter, a Ph.D. student and research associate at the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on the biomineralization process of marine calcifiers such as bivalve shells, bryozoans, and pearls. She was planning to attend the Gordon Research Conference on Biomineralization held 9–14 August, 2020 in Castelldefels, Spain, which has been rescheduled to 2022 due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Both recipients were each awarded 800 Swiss francs. We congratulate the winners on their accomplishments.

We would like to thank all the applicants for contributing with their high quality submissions, and the Evaluation Committee members for reviewing the numerous applications.

Crystals Editorial Office

Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of the Evaluation Committee, we are pleased to announce the winners of the Crystals Travel Awards 2019. Two awards were granted to:

• Mr. Daniel Adam Decato, Ph.D. student at the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Montana, Missoula, MT, USA.
• Dr. Haegyeom Kim, Postdoctoral Fellow at Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA.

Mr. Daniel Adam Decato is a Ph.D student in organic chemistry at the University of Montana, Missoula, USA (in the laboratory of Professor Orion Berryman). His research focuses on fundamental and functional aspects of the halogen bond, with a recent focus on the synergy between hydrogen and halogen bonds. He will attend the 1st International Conference on Noncovalent Interactions (ICNI) held on 2–6 September 2019 in Lisbon, Portugal.

Dr. Haegyeom Kim is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, USA. His research is related to the design and development of energy storage materials, mainly focused beyond Li ion batteries. He will attend the conference the 22nd Solid State Ionics (SSI-22) conference held on 16–21 June 2019 in PyeongChang, Korea.

Both recipients were each awarded 800 Swiss francs towards their travel expenses to attend the conferences in 2019. We congratulate the winners on their accomplishments.

We would like to thank all the applicants for contributing with their highquality submissions, and the Evaluation Committee members for reviewing the numerous applications.

Crystals Editorial Office

Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of the Evaluation Committee, we are pleased to announce the winner of the 2018 Crystals Travel Awards. It has been granted to: Dr. Wenhao Sun, a postdoctoral researcher at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, USA. His work involves developing new thermodynamic frameworks and density functional theory (DFT)-based tools to investigate solid-aqueous phase equilibria at the nanoscale, competitive nucleation, and constrained equilibria.

Prof. Dr. Helmut Cölfen
Editor-in-Chief

Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of the Evaluation Committee, we are pleased to announce the winners of the 2017 Crystals Travel Awards. These have been granted to:

Dr. Benjamin Frandsen, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, USA. His work is focused on magnetic pair distribution function analysis of diffuse magnetic scattering.

And to:
Dr. Matthew Dunstan, a research fellow at the University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. His work is focused on harnessing the power of large databases of computationally determined structures of materials, to predict new candidates for use in carbon capture and storage (CCS) applications, in particular on materialsthat are able to reversibly release and recover oxygen from their structure.

Prof. Dr. Helmut Cölfen
Editor-in-Chief