Announcements

Access the full interview to hear his insights in this conversation.

MDPI will attend the 71st Summer School for Young Researchers in Condensed Matter Physics (CMPSS 2026), which will take place from 17–21 August 2026 (Booth time: 19–20 August), Kumamoto, Japan. It will be held at Aso Plaza Hotel and organized by Young Researchers in Condensed Matter Physics.

This conference focuses on advancing education, academic exchange, and network building for the next generation of researchers in condensed matter physics. As one of Japan’s major summer schools, covering a broad range of rapidly developing areas in condensed matter science, it provides a platform for graduate students, early career scientists, and young professionals to learn from leading researchers, present their own work, and exchange ideas across different specialties.

The program covers both fundamental and advanced topics in condensed matter physics, including theoretical and experimental approaches, emerging research themes, and the connection between basic science and cutting-edge applications. Through lectures, intensive seminars, oral and poster presentations, group discussions, and networking activities, the summer school aims to broaden participants’ academic perspectives, encourage interdisciplinary collaboration, and support the development of future researchers in the field.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Condensed Matter;
• Crystals;
• Magnetochemistry;
• Atoms;
• QuBS;
• Quantum Reports;
• Magnetism;
• Physics;
• Entropy.

If you plan to attend this event, we encourage you to visit our booth and speak to our representatives. We are eager to meet you in person and assist you with any queries that you may have.

For more information about the conference, please visit the official website.

Conference: European Astronomical Society Annual Meeting 2026 (EAS 2026)
Date: 29 June–3 July 2026
Location: Lausanne, Switzerland

The EAS Annual Meeting is the largest conference of European astronomy, with more than 25 years of history. EAS 2026 will bring together over 1200 professional astronomers to present cutting-edge breakthroughs and showcase the latest advancements in astronomy, fostering a stimulating platform for the exchange of ideas and views of astronomy and related technologies.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Galaxies;
• Universe;
• Astronomy;
• Instruments;
• Particles;
• Symmetry;
• Dynamics;
• Atoms;
• Data;
• Physics;
• Entropy.

Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person at our booth and answering any questions you may have. For more information regarding this conference, please visit the following link: https://eas.unige.ch/EAS2026/index.jsp.

Celebrated each year on 16 May and led by UNESCO, the International Day of Light recognizes the profound impact of light and light-based technologies on science, culture, education, and sustainable development.

This occasion also commemorates the first successful operation of a laser, which was carried out in 1960 and was a breakthrough that continues to shape modern innovation, from advanced research to everyday applications.

This webinar brings together experts across disciplines to explore how light is driving progress in fields such as optics, photonics, materials science, and sustainability.

We look forward to welcoming you to this webinar and hope the session will inspire new ideas, foster meaningful discussions, and encourage future collaborations.

Date: 15 May 2026
Time: 1:00 p.m. CEST | 7:00 p.m. CST (Asia) | 7:00 a.m. EDT
Webinar ID: 863 0596 4340
Webinar Secretariat: journal.webinar@mdpi.com
Website: https://sciforum.net/event/IDL2026

Register now for free!

Program:

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email 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 for viewing.

Webinar Keynote Speakers:

• Dr. Dr. Aung Ko Ko Kyaw, Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, China;
• Dr. Lorenzo Giuffrida, The Extreme Light Infrastructure ERIC, ELI Beamlines Facility, Czech Republic;
• Dr. Yannis Paulus, Department of Ophthalmology and Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University Wilmer Eye Institute, USA.

We are pleased to highlight 10 notable papers on quantum thermodynamics and quantum energy technologies published in Entropy (ISSN: 1099-4300) between 2024 and 2026, and invite you to explore these contributions, which reflect the latest advances and emerging directions in these fields.

1. “Gauge-Invariant Quantum Thermodynamics: Consequences for the First Law”
by Lucas C. Céleri and Łukasz Rudnicki
Entropy 2024, 26(2), 111; https://doi.org/10.3390/e26020111
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/26/2/111

2. “Heat Bath in a Quantum Circuit”
by Jukka P. Pekola and Bayan Karimi
Entropy 2024, 26(5), 429; https://doi.org/10.3390/e26050429
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/26/5/429

3. “Computational Issues of Quantum Heat Engines with Non-Harmonic Working Medium”
by Andrea R. Insinga, Bjarne Andresen and Peter Salamon
Entropy 2024, 26(5), 359; https://doi.org/10.3390/e26050359
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/26/5/359

4. “Fractional Control Gate Protocols for Quantum Engines”
by Elliot John Fox, Taysa Mendes de Mendonça, Ferdinand Schmidt-Kaler and Irene D’Amico
Entropy 2026, 28(3), 297; https://doi.org/10.3390/e28030297
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/28/3/297

5. “Finite-Time Dynamics of an Entanglement Engine: Current, Fluctuations and Kinetic Uncertainty Relations”
by Jeanne Bourgeois, Gianmichele Blasi, Shishir Khandelwal and Géraldine Haack
Entropy 2024, 26(6), 497; https://doi.org/10.3390/e26060497
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/26/6/497

6. “Coherence-Enhanced Single-Qubit Thermometry out of Equilibrium”
by Gonçalo Frazão, Marco Pezzutto, Yasser Omar, Emmanuel Zambrini Cruzeiro and Stefano Gherardini
Entropy 2024, 26(7), 568; https://doi.org/10.3390/e26070568
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/26/7/568

7. “Spin-Based Quantum Energy Devices: From Quantum Thermal Machines to Quantum Batteries”
by Suman Chand, Riccardo Grazi, Niccolò Traverso Ziani and Dario Ferraro
Entropy 2026, 28(4), 396; https://doi.org/10.3390/e28040396
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/28/4/396

8. “Harnessing Nth Root Gates for Energy Storage”
by Elliot John Fox, Marcela Herrera, Ferdinand Schmidt-Kaler and Irene D’Amico
Entropy 2024, 26(11), 952; https://doi.org/10.3390/e26110952
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/26/11/952

9. “Strong Local Passivity in Unconventional Scenarios: A New Protocol for Amplified Quantum Energy Teleportation”
by Songbo Xie, Manas Sajjan and Sabre Kais
Entropy 2025, 27(11), 1147; https://doi.org/10.3390/e27111147
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/27/11/1147

10. “Dual Effects of Lamb Shift in Quantum Thermodynamical Systems”
by Zichen Zhang and Changshui Yu
Entropy 2025, 27(10), 1012; https://doi.org/10.3390/e27101012
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/27/10/1012

We hope this curated selection serves as a valuable resource for researchers interested in the advances of quantum thermodynamics and quantum energy technologies. For more information, please visit the Entropy journal website: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/entropy.

We are pleased to highlight 10 notable papers on quantum computing, algorithms, and simulation published in Entropy (ISSN: 1099-4300) between 2024 and 2026, and invite you to explore these contributions, which reflect the latest advances and emerging directions in these fields. The following list is arranged in thematic order, from foundational computational models to algorithmic advances and simulation techniques.

1. “Efficient Implementation of Discrete-Time Quantum Walks on Quantum Computers”
by Luca Razzoli, Gabriele Cenedese, Maria Bondani and Giuliano Benenti
Entropy 2024, 26(4), 313; https://doi.org/10.3390/e26040313
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/26/4/313

2. “Efficient Circuit Implementations of Continuous-Time Quantum Walks for Quantum Search”
by Renato Portugal and Jalil Khatibi Moqadam
Entropy 2025, 27(5), 454; https://doi.org/10.3390/e27050454
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/27/5/454

3. “First Hitting Times on a Quantum Computer: Tracking vs. Local Monitoring, Topological Effects, and Dark States”
by Qingyuan Wang, Silin Ren, Ruoyu Yin, Klaus Ziegler, Eli Barkai and Sabine Tornow
Entropy 2024, 26(10), 869; https://doi.org/10.3390/e26100869
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/26/10/869

4. “Monte Carlo Based Techniques for Quantum Magnets with Long-Range Interactions”
by Patrick Adelhardt, Jan A. Koziol, Anja Langheld and Kai P. Schmidt
Entropy 2024, 26(5), 401; https://doi.org/10.3390/e26050401
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/26/5/401

5. “Geometric Algebra Jordan–Wigner Transformation for Quantum Simulation”
by Grégoire Veyrac and Zeno Toffano
Entropy 2024, 26(5), 410; https://doi.org/10.3390/e26050410
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/26/5/410

6. “Phase Coordinate Uncomputation in Quantum Recursive Fourier Sampling”
by Christoffer Hindlycke, Niklas Johansson and Jan-Åke Larsson
Entropy 2025, 27(6), 596; https://doi.org/10.3390/e27060596
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/27/6/596

7. “An Efficient Algorithmic Way to Construct Boltzmann Machine Representations for Arbitrary Stabilizer Code”
by Yuan-Hang Zhang, Zhian Jia, Yu-Chun Wu and Guang-Can Guo
Entropy 2025, 27(6), 627; https://doi.org/10.3390/e27060627
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/27/6/627

8. “Simon’s Algorithm in the NISQ Cloud”
by Reece Robertson, Emery Doucet, Ernest Spicer and Sebastian Deffner
Entropy 2025, 27(7), 658; https://doi.org/10.3390/e27070658
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/27/7/658

9. “Solving the B-SAT Problem Using Quantum Computing: Smaller Is Sometimes Better”
by Ahmad Bennakhi, Gregory T. Byrd and Paul Franzon
Entropy 2024, 26(10), 875; https://doi.org/10.3390/e26100875
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/26/10/875

10. “The Power of the Lorentz Quantum Computer”
by Qi Zhang and Biao Wu
Entropy 2026, 28(3), 266; https://doi.org/10.3390/e28030266
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/28/3/266

We hope that this curated selection serves as a valuable resource for researchers interested in the advances of quantum computing, algorithms, and simulation. For more information, please visit the Entropy journal website at https://www.mdpi.com/journal/entropy.

MDPI will attend the 31st Australasian Conference on Information Security and Privacy as an exhibitor. This meeting will be held in Perth, Australia, from 6 to 9 July 2026.

ACISP 2026 will take place in the beautiful and historic city of Perth, and will offer a unique opportunity to connect, learn, and shape the future of our field. It will be organized by the University of Western Australia (UWA) and Edith Cowan University (ECU). The conference’s topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Information;
• Blockchains;
• Future Internet;
• Algorithms;
• Computers;
• Cryptography;
• Entropy;
• JCP;
• MAKE;
• Network;
• Software.

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 at our booth and answering any questions you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit the following website: https://acisp.org/.

We are pleased to highlight ten notable papers on non-equilibrium thermodynamics published in Entropy (ISSN: 1099-4300) in 2024 and 2025. We invite you to explore these contributions, which reflect recent advances and emerging directions in non-equilibrium thermodynamics.

1. “Fluctuation Theorems for Heat Exchanges between Passive and Active Baths”
by Massimiliano Semeraro, Antonio Suma and Giuseppe Negro
Entropy 2024, 26(6), 439; https://doi.org/10.3390/e26060439
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/26/6/439

2. “Fluctuation Relation for the Dissipative Flux: The Role of Dynamics, Correlations and Heat Baths”
by Xubin Lin Lamberto Rondoni and Hong Zhao
Entropy 2024, 26(2), 156; https://doi.org/10.3390/e26020156
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/26/2/156

3. “Not All Fluctuations Are Created Equal: Spontaneous Variations in Thermodynamic Function”
by James P. Crutchfield and Cina Aghamohammadi
Entropy 2024, 26(11), 894; https://doi.org/10.3390/e26110894
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/26/11/894

4. “Restoring the Fluctuation–Dissipation Theorem in Kardar–Parisi–Zhang Universality Class through a New Emergent Fractal Dimension”
by Márcio S. Gomes-Filho, Pablo de Castro, Danilo B. Liarte and Fernando A. Oliveira
Entropy 2024, 26(3), 260; https://doi.org/10.3390/e26030260
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/26/3/260

5. “Stochastic Entropy Production for Classical and Quantum Dynamical Systems with Restricted Diffusion”
by Jonathan Dexter and Ian J. Ford
Entropy 2025, 27(4), 383; https://doi.org/10.3390/e27040383
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/27/4/383

6. “Entropy Production in a System of Janus Particles”
by Andrés Arango-Restrepo, Juan David Torrenegra-Rico and J. Miguel Rubi
Entropy 2025, 27(2), 112; https://doi.org/10.3390/e27020112
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/27/2/112

7. “Methods to Calculate Entropy Generation”
by Jude A. Osara and Michael D. Bryant
Entropy 2024, 26(3), 237; https://doi.org/10.3390/e26030237
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/26/3/237

8. “Thermodynamic Insights into Symmetry Breaking: Exploring Energy Dissipation across Diverse Scales”
by Andrés Arango-Restrepo and J. Miguel Rubi
Entropy 2024, 26(3), 231; https://doi.org/10.3390/e26030231
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/26/3/231

9. “Local Equilibrium Approximation in Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics of Diffusion”
by Kim R. Kristiansen and Bjørn Hafskjold
Entropy 2025, 27(4), 400; https://doi.org/10.3390/e27040400
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/27/4/400

We are honored to announce that Prof. Dr. William Gerwick will serve as the Chair of the 2026 Tu Youyou Award Committee.

A world-renowned authority in marine natural products chemistry and pharmacology, Professor Gerwick is a Distinguished Professor at both the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of California San Diego (UCSD). His pioneering work at the intersection of ocean sciences and drug discovery makes him a fitting leader for an award centered on transformative medicinal breakthroughs.

Under Professor Gerwick’s stewardship, the 2026 Tu Youyou Award Committee will focus on recognizing innovative and impactful research in natural products chemistry and medicinal chemistry, particularly work with the potential to drive meaningful advances in both scientific understanding and human health.

To provide further insight into his perspectives, we include below an interview with Professor Gerwick, in which he reflects on his scientific journey, his views on the field, and his vision for the Tu Youyou Award.

A Conversation with the Chair

1. Could you please introduce yourself and your research journey?

My research focuses on the natural products of marine algae and cyanobacteria, their application in medicine, their biosynthesis using genomic approaches, and innovative methods in the structure elucidation of natural products.

I received my BS degree from the University of California at Davis, my PhD from the University of California at San Diego, and conducted postdoctoral work at the University of Connecticut. After a couple of years in a junior faculty position at the Department of Chemistry at the University of Puerto Rico, I spent 21 years as Professor of Pharmacy at Oregon State University. In 2005, I returned to my PhD institution at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at UC San Diego, where I am currently a Distinguished Professor of Oceanography and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Throughout my career, I have been dedicated to advancing the field through both leadership and mentorship. I have served as president of the American Society of Pharmacognosy, chaired and co-chaired several major research conferences, and served as an associate editor for the Journal of Natural Products. I am a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and of the American Society of Pharmacognosy. I have trained over 100 doctoral and postdoctoral students, and my research group has published nearly 500 papers and more than 25 patents on topics in the natural product sciences and medicinal chemistry.

2. What motivated you to accept the role of Chair of the 2026 Tu Youyou Award Committee?

Of course, I am a huge supporter of all awards that are given in recognition of excellent scientific research, and especially so in the natural products sciences and medicinal chemistry. However, this award is truly special in that it recognizes scientific excellence as well as impact, and is given in the name of an individual, Tu Youyou, who clearly had many challenges along the path to reach the pinnacle of her success. Not only was she the first Chinese person to win a Nobel prize in this area, but she was also the first Chinese woman to receive a Nobel prize, and this was achieved without graduate education in China or elsewhere. It’s a true testament to what can be achieved by hard work, determination, and vision. To read the history of her extraordinary approach to discovering novel antimalarial compounds from Traditional Chinese Medicine is truly inspirational. It is, therefore, the inspiration provided by the extraordinary life and career of Tu Youyou that motivated me to accept the Chair of the Award Committee for 2026.

3. How do you view the role of natural products chemistry and medicinal chemistry in today’s scientific landscape, and what major advances over the past decade have shaped this field?

A quite remarkable integration of fields is currently transforming natural products science and medicinal chemistry. In natural products, we are seeing integration of different omics methods, from metabolites to proteins to nucleic acids. Sophisticated biological and pharmacological approaches are driving the discovery of exquisitely potent and selective natural products. Advances are being made to integrate molecular-level recognition of natural products with chemical ecological studies, and sophisticated methods of structure determination using Artificial Intelligence or pioneering new tools such as microED are being applied with increasing frequency. High-level synthetic methodologies, such as protecting group-free synthetic routes, are enhancing medicinal chemistry, accelerating the identification of lead molecules with attractive pharmaceutical properties at an increasing pace.

4. How do you consider the balance between fundamental discovery (e.g., new molecules or mechanisms) and practical impact (e.g., therapeutic applications)?

Many individuals are excellent scientists and mentors, and have essential roles in developing our culture that values science and the scientific method. It should also be pointed out that not all scientific discoveries are going to have a broad societal impact, but they are nevertheless critical to the overall body and structure of science. But it is a truly remarkable individual who makes a key scientific discovery, recognizes its potential value to society in general, and then has the skills and determination to bring it forward as a useful product. That was the type of person the Tu Youyou is, and that is the type of person who is honored by the prize in her name.

5. What do you see as the key challenges or opportunities currently facing the field?

We are on the crux of an amazing revolution in many of the sciences, including natural products and medicinal chemistry; the purposeful application of Artificial Intelligence to solving many of the difficulties involved in the search for new pharmaceuticals from Nature. AI is transforming how we select organisms for study, what pharmaceutical targets to go after, rapidly resolving the chemical structures of new compounds, identifying efficient routes to their chemical synthesis, understanding their molecular mechanisms of action, and finally, designing their clinical application. The role of people in these pursuits is changing. Increasingly, the human role will be providing overall vision: what can we do? What should we do? And it is important to remember that AI is providing hypotheses, not truth. Scientists with expert domain knowledge will be critical for discerning the correctness of hypotheses put forth by AI. Altogether, advances in technology, expanding knowledge, and the appropriate use of AI methods are preparing society to be able to address emerging diseases, such as pandemics, as well as conditions that are not effectively treated by currently existing therapeutics.

6. How do you expect the Tu Youyou Award to contribute to the advancement of natural product chemistry, medicinal chemistry, and human health over the coming years?

The Tu Youyou Award is potentially transformative for the broad fields of natural products science and medicinal chemistry as it brings a significantly increased level of visibility to these topics and their contributions to human health. It will be crucial to have excellent communication to news agencies, social media and other communication outlets so that the general public is informed and educated on the high impact of these natural product/medicinal chemistry contributions. This will bring increased funding, attract promising students, and generally enrich the interface of these fields with the health sector.

7. What message would you like to convey to the research community and the public during this open nomination phase?

This prize gives broad societal visibility to the role that natural products have had in shaping a majority of our current medicines, as well as understanding the life forms with whom we share the planet. Further, it recognizes a woman scientist working under sub-optimal conditions who could persevere and make discoveries of global impact. The prize and what it represents, therefore, inspires current and future generations to engage in the study of Nature and its relationship to Human Health, to overcome adversity, and to aspire to making one’s life impactful.

About the Tu Youyou Award

Established in 2016, the Tu Youyou Award seeks to honor those who excel in the fields of natural products chemistry and medicinal chemistry. This award offers a total prize of CHF 100,000, which will be equally divided among the winners if there is more than one, with each recipient receiving an award medal and a certificate.

The 2026 Tu Youyou Award is open for nominations until 31 October 2026. We encourage all eligible candidates to participate in this prestigious recognition, as this award not only honors individual achievement but also encourages further scientific exchange, exploration and discovery in critical areas of medicine.

If you are interested in participating, please visit the Tu Youyou Award website for more information on the nomination requirements.