Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce that the winner of the Diversity 2023 Young Investigator Award is Dr. Zhichao Zhou.

Dr. Zhichao Zhou is an Assistant Scientist of the Department of Bacteriology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, USA. Dr. Zhou’s research interests are in the metagenome and metatranscriptome-based interpretation of biogeochemical functions and activities, environmental and energy dynamics mediated by microorganisms, microbial community interactions, the environmental microbiome, the virome, and population genomics. Dr. Zhou received his PhD in 2017 and has an outstanding publication record, comprising 47 publications in peer-reviewed international journals. His Google Scholar citations number is 2089, and his H-index is 23. He is clearly a rising star in the field of the environmental microbiome and virome. As a single applicant, Dr. Zhou has obtained multiple awards, including the Lorus J. and Margery J. Milne Scholarship (2016, MBL Microbial Diversity Course), the third prize of Polar Science Excellent Paper (2012, State Oceanic Administration of China), and a University Postgraduate Fellowship (2012, the University of Hong Kong). These are outstanding achievements in today’s competitive environment. Please join us in congratulating Dr. Zhou for his remarkable accomplishments.

As the awardee, Dr. Zhou will receive an honorarium of CHF 2000, an offer to publish a paper free of charge before 31 December 2023 in Diversity after peer review, and an electronic certificate.

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

Editor-in-Chief, Prof. Dr. Michael Wink, on behalf of Diversity 2023 Young Investigator Evaluation Committee