Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of the Editor-in-Chief Dr. Kousuke Hanada, we would like to acknowledge our reviewers who have generously devoted their time to reviewing the papers submitted to Life. In doing this, we wish to present an award to congratulate the reviewers who have demonstrated their dedication, professionalism, and timeliness in reviewing manuscripts for Life.

What are the pre-requisites to be eligible for this award?
– All of the reviewers for Life in 2022 will be automatically considered for the award.

Select criteria:
– Number of review reports (only first review reports are considered);
– Review quality, based on the rating given on SuSy;
– Review speed.

What will the winners receive?
There will be two winners this year, and each will receive the following:
– CHF 500;
– A CHF 1000 voucher to publish a paper in Life in 2023;
– A certificate.

When will the winners be announced?
– The winners will be announced on the journal website by the end of February 2023.

How can I make myself eligible?
– If you have not yet reviewed papers for Life, but would like to do so, you can register as a reviewer on the following website: https://susy.mdpi.com/volunteer/profile/edit.

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce the launch of the “Life 2022 Best Paper Award” for research and review articles published in Life from 1 January to 31 December 2021. One review and two research articles will receive an award each. The winning papers will be selected after thorough evaluation by the journal award committee, which is led by the EiCs Prof. Dr. Katalin Prokai-Tatrai and Prof. Dr. Lluís Ribas de Pouplana, and the winners will be announced on the journal website in January 2023.

Eligibility for the award:

– Papers published in Life from 1 January to 31 December 2021;

– 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 (data source: Web of Science (Clarivate Analytics)):

– 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;

– Citation and download rates in 2022.

Prizes:

– One review award: CHF 500 and a chance to publish a free paper in Life in 2023;

– Two research article awards:

Rank 1: CHF 500 and a chance to publish a free paper in Life in 2023.

Rank 2: CHF 300 and a chance to publish a free paper in Life in 2023.

– Each winner will also receive a certificate.

The winners will be announced on the journal website in January 2023.

Kind regards,
Life Editorial Office

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce that Life is now inviting nominations for the Life 2022 Outstanding Investigator Award for Women. This prize will be given to two women in recognition of their excellence in the field of life science. All nominations will be assessed by an Evaluation Committee.

The Prize:

– CHF 1000 (Swiss francs);
– Option to publish one paper free of charge in Life after peer review before 31 December 2023;
– A certificate.

Eligibility and Requirements:

– Nominees should identify as women;
– Nominees must have produced ground-breaking research and made a significant contribution to the advancement of life science;
– Candidates must be nominated by two senior scientists, research directors, or department heads;
– Nominees can only apply for one award at a time.

List of Documents Needed for Nomination:

– Detailed curriculum vitae, including an updated publication list and a list of the researcher’s own research grants;
– Scanned copy of doctorate or medical certificate;
– Signed nomination letters from two established senior researchers.

Schedule:

– Open for nominations: 17 February 2022;
– Nomination deadline: 30 November 2022;
– Winners announcement: 20 December 2022.

How to Nominate?

The nominations must be submitted online.

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce the winners of the Life 2021 Outstanding Reviewer Award. This award is granted in appreciation of the high number, timeliness, and quality of reviews submitted in 2021. The winners will receive a certificate, 500 CHF, and a 1000 CHF voucher to publish a paper in 2022.

Marlena Zyśk
Molecular Medicine at Medical University of Gdansk, 80-211 Gdansk, Poland
Research interests: energy metabolism in the brain cells; mitochondrial dynamic; diabetes vs. immune response; traumatic brain injury vs. immune response; neurodegeneration and Alzheimer’s disease pathology

Kenji Ikehara
International Institute for Advanced Studies, Souraku District, Japan
Research interests: origin of life; origin of Gene; genetic code; protein structure formation

We wish to extend our congratulations to all winners in appreciation of their excellent reviews and well-earned awards!

The Life Editorial Board and Editorial Team would like to gratefully acknowledge the time and energy dedicated by reviewers in checking the manuscripts submitted to Life. It is due to their e orts that the high quality of the journal and quick turnaround is maintained.

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce the winners of the Life 2021 Best Paper Awards. All papers published in 2020 in Life were considered for the awards. After a thorough evaluation of the originality and significance of the papers, citations, and downloads, the two winning papers, which were nominated by the journal’s Award Committee, have been selected and they are the following:

Article:
Characterization of Resistance in Gram-Negative Urinary Isolates Using Existing and Novel Indicators of Clinical Relevance: A 10-Year Data Analysis
By: Márió Gajdács, Zoltán Bátori, Marianna Ábrók, Andrea Lázár, and Katalin Burián
Life 2020, 10(2), 16.

Review:
Neuroprotection or Neurotoxicity of Illicit Drugs on Parkinson’s Disease
By: Carla Ferreira, Catarina Almeida, Sandra Tenreiro, and Alexandre Quintas
Life 2020, 10(6), 86.

We believe the above papers represent valuable contributions to Life. Please join us in congratulating the winners of Life 2021 Best Paper Awards. We would also like to take this opportunity to thank all our authors for their continued support.

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce that the Life 2021 Young Investigator Award winners are Dr. João Pedro da Silva Machado Lobo and Dr. Vincenzo Russo.

Dr. João Pedro da Silva Machado Lobo is a medical resident in pathology with a PhD in pathology and molecular genetics from the University of Porto. He has published 68 original articles in peer-reviewed journals (39 as the first author) and 53 scientific communications with abstracts in peer-reviewed journals (27 as the first author). He is the author of 8 books/online chapters (all 8 as the first author). He has peer-reviewed 75 manuscripts.

Dr. Vincenzo Russo is an assistant professor (qualification for associate professor) of the Department of Translational Medical Sciences, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli. He has published 175 papers in international journals with impact factors.

As awardees, Dr. João Pedro da Silva Machado Lobo and Dr. Vincenzo Russo will receive an honorarium of CHF 1000 and the opportunity to publish one paper free of charge before 31 December 2022 in Life after peer review.

We want to thank all of the excellent young scientists who applied for this award—their brilliant CVs made the choice very difficult. We would also like to thank all Award Committee Members for their thorough evaluation of the applications.

Life 2021 Young Investigator Awards Evaluation Committee.

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce the winner of the Life 2021 PhD Thesis Award, which recognizes the scientific relevance of studies carried out by the most talented and motivated PhD students around the world.

The inaugural Life award for outstanding thesis, in recognition of his scientific creativity and contributions to biosciences, has been granted to Dr. Brayon Fremin (Stanford University, USA). He will receive CHF 800 and a certificate. In his PhD thesis, Dr. Fremin developed original ideas and methods for profiling RNA expression in the microbiome. The results—generated by concepts developed independently by Dr. Fremin himself while he was a PhD student—are attracting considerable attention (> 100 citations) after being published in the most well-reputed journals. The procedures used were highly original, and identification of what genes are expressed, and novel open reading frames, of the microbiome should have a huge impact on understanding how the microbiome influences many disease states. His advisor, Dr. Bhatt, states “I have never met a more creative and pioneering translational scientist in my entire career”. We look forward to reading about Dr. Fremin’s many scientific accomplishments to come.

Honorable Mentions

In addition to the winner, the award committee would also like to specifically recognize the impressive contributions of two other candidates, who are distinguished by the passion, dedication, and talent they bring to their projects, and for the importance of the impressive results their hard work has yielded.

*Soukaina El Amrani Zerrifi* (Cadi Ayyad University, Morocco) is recognized for her outstanding accomplishments and the impact of her work for the environment and bio-technological development of her country. In her thesis work, she isolated and identified multiple products from both seaweeds and bacteria that hold great potential for combatting cyanobacterial blooms. .
*Carina Isabel Coelho Proença* (University of Porto, Portugal) is recognized for her impressive productivity and the impact of her work on the field, as reflected by over 190 citations of publications arising from her PhD work. Her research investigated the potential application of flavonoids targeting several diabetes-related enzymes as novel therapeutics. This large body of work generated nine highly cited papers with Dr. Proença as lead author.

On behalf of the evaluation committee and of the journal Editorial Office, we congratulate the winner on his exceptional accomplishments. We would like to thank all the applicants for submitting their diverse and fascinating range of research topics. All of the submitted applications demonstrated the motivation, hard work, and dedication to science of every candidate at a highest level, and we take the opportunity to wish everyone the best as they develop upon their exciting careers.

Prof. Dr. Bruce J. Nicholson and Prof. Dr. Pasquale Stano
Section Editors-in-Chief, Life

Dear Colleague,

We are pleased to announce that the winners of the Life 2020 Young Investigator Awards are Prof. Dr. Luning Liu and Dr. David E. Olson.

 Prof. Dr. Luning Liu is Chair of Microbial Bioenergetics and Bioengineering and Royal Society University Research Fellow at the Institute of Integrative 
Biology, University of Liverpool, United Kingdom. His lab aims to explore the biosynthesis and function of photosynthetic membranes, macromolecular assemblies and protein organelles using interdisciplinary approaches. His long-term goals are to understand the molecular principles underlying the formation and regulation of bioenergetic systems and to harness the knowledge to underpin the engineering of functional biomachineries and the development of a diverse range of biotechnological applications. As PI and co-PI, Dr. Liu has secured GBP 2.8M and GBP 4.5M foundations.

Dr. David E. Olson is Assistant Professor at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, as well as at the Department of Chemistry, University of California, Davis. He received his PhD degree from Stanford University. His research focuses on compound-induced neural plasticity and the development of neurotherapeutics. Since starting his career at UC Davis, he has published several highly influential papers (20 in total). Additionally, he has been awarded 13 grants as the sole PI. He was named a Hellman Fellow and was the recipient of the Jordi Folch-Pi Award from the American Society for Neurochemistry.

As awardees, Prof. Dr. Liu and Dr. Olson will receive an honorarium of 1000 CHF and the opportunity to publish one paper free of charge before 31 December 2021 in Life after peer review.

We want to thank all of the excellent young scientists who applied for this award— their brilliant CVs made the choice very difficult. We would also like to thank all of the Award Committee Members for their thorough evaluation of the applications.

Life 2020 Young Investigator Awards Evaluation Committe

Dear Colleagues,

As Editor-in-Chief of Life, I am pleased to announce the winner of the Life Travel Award 2019:

Pol Arranz-Gibert, a post-doctoral fellow at Yale University, whose research focuses on the expansion of the genetic code to facilitate the incorporation of nonstandard amino acids into proteins. He is planning to present his work “Ribosome Evolution for the Incorporation of Non-Standard Monomers”. The award consists of 800 Swiss Francs to attend an academic conference of his choice in 2019.

We would like to thank all the applicants for submitting their fascinating and diverse range of research topics. And the competition for the Life Travel Award 2020 will be opened at the end of 2019. Please visit Life homepage for more information closer to this date.

Dr. Ulrich Muller
Editor-in-Chief

Dear Colleagues,

As Editor-in-Chief of Life, I am pleased to announce the winner of the Life Travel Award 2018:

Ryo Mizuuchi, PhD student at Osaka University, whose research focuses on constructing a comprehensive scenario of possible evolution of primitive replication systems. He is planning to present his work “Sustainable Cooperation and Coevolution of Encapsulated Gene-Encoding RNA Replicators” at the Evolution 2018 Montpellier. The award consists of 800 Swiss Francs to attend this conference.

Prof. Dr. Antonio Lazcano
Editor-in-Chief

As Editor-in-Chief of Life, I am pleased to announce the winner of the Life Travel Award 2017:
Claudia Bonfio, PhD student at the Centre for Integrative Biology (CIBIO), University of Trento, whose research focuses on the origin of iron–sulfur clusters and their catalytic activity on the early Earth. She is planning to present her work “UV-light driven prebiotic synthesis of iron–sulfur clusters” at the XVIIIth International Conference on the Origin of Life. The award consists of 800 Swiss Francs to attend this conference.

Prof. Dr. David Deamer
Editor-in-Chief