Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce that the winners of the Forests 2021 Early Career Investigator Award are Dr. Oksana Pelyukh and Dr. Saverio Francini.

Dr. Oksana Pelyukh is a researcher of the Research Institute of Mountain Forestry at Ukrainian National Forestry University, Lviv, Ukraine. Dr. Oksana Pelyukh ’s research interests are sustainable development, ecological economics, mountain forest management, forest modeling and stakeholder analysis. Dr. Oksana Pelyukh received her PhD in 2020 and has an outstanding publication record, comprising 17 publications in peer-reviewed international journals. Please join us in congratulating Dr. Oksana Pelyukh for her outstanding achievements.

Dr. Saverio Francini is a post-doctor of the Laboratory of Forest Geomatics at the University of Florence in Italy. Dr. Saverio Francini’s has great experience in forest monitoring and innovative approaches to forest remote sensing and spatial analysis. Dr. Saverio Francini received his PhD in 2022 and has an outstanding publication record, comprising 21 publications in peer-reviewed international journals. Please join us in congratulating Dr. Saverio Francini for his outstanding achievements.

As the awardees, Dr. Oksana Pelyukh and Dr. Saverio Francini will each receive an honorarium of CHF 1000, an offer to publish a paper with a 50% discount on the article processing charge before 31 December 2023 in Forests 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.

Editor-in-Chief
Dr. Timothy A. Martin and Dr. Cate Macinnis-Ng
On behalf of the Forests 2021 Early Career Investigator Evaluation Committee