Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce the “Materials 2023 Best Paper Award” for articles published in Materials from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2021. Three reviews and three research articles will each receive an award. The papers will be selected after a thorough evaluation by the journal’s Award Committee led by its Editor-in-Chief, Prof. Dr. Maryam Tabrizian.

Eligibility for the Award:
– Papers published in Materials between 1 January 2021 and 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’s 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 the uniqueness of the approaches and concepts;
– Clarity of presentation;
– Citations and downloads.

The Prize:
– The first prize (one review and one research article): CHF 500 each;
– The second prize (one review and one research article): CHF 300 each;
– The third prize (one review and one research article): CHF 200 each;
– A chance to publish a paper free of charge in Materials before 1 October 2024 after peer review;
– Each winner will also receive a certificate.

The winners will be announced on the journal’s website on 31 October 2023.

Kind regards,
Materials Editorial Office

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce that the winner of the Materials 2023 Young Investigator Award is Dr. Bharat Gwalani.

Dr. Bharat Gwalani was born and raised in Rajasthan, India. He is a materials scientist by training and is currently a professor at North Carolina State University. He obtained a Ph.D. degree in Materials Science and Engineering in 2017 from the University of North Texas, Denton, USA. His current research focuses on developing alloys for structural and functional applications in extreme environments. He uses deformation processing-based techniques and multi-length-scale materials characterization tools to understand material behavior from the atomic to micrometer scales. In particular, his contribution to the field of high entropy alloy (HEA) development is noteworthy.

His research in material degradation, phase transformations, and microstructural-mechanical/magnetic property relationships have implications for improving materials’ performance and durability.

Dr. Gwalani's research interests also include solid-state processing of materials, additive manufacturing, and characterization of battery materials, demonstrating the breadth of his expertise and potential applications of his work. During his tenure at Pacific Northwest National Lab (PNNL), he led projects on understanding mass transport during shear processing, developing cold spray coatings, high-temperature electrical conductors, and high-temperature engine alloys for various DOE sectors, resulting in program development and growth.

In addition to his research, Dr. Gwalani is committed to promoting diversity and inclusion in STEM fields. He participates in outreach activities at individual and community levels to inspire and uplift the next generation of students from all communities and backgrounds. Please join us in congratulating Dr. Gwalani for his outstanding achievements.

As the awardee, Dr. Bharat Gwalani will receive an honorarium of CHF 2000, an offer to publish a paper free of charge before the end of 2023 in Materials 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. Maryam Tabrizian
Editor-in-Chief, Materials

Dear Colleagues,

As Editor-in-Chief of Materials, I am pleased to announce the winners of the Materials 2023 Travel Award. The award has been granted to Ms. Farah Daou, a PhD student at Università del Piemonte Orientale—Centro di Ricerca Traslazionale sulle Malattie Autoimmuni e Allergiche (UPO-CAAD), Italy, and Dr. Barbara Tomadoni, a postdoctoral researcher in the Group of Technology and Design of Multicomponent Products, Universidad de Sevilla, Spain.

The awardees 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 incredibly 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 would also like to congratulate the winners on their accomplishments.

Prof. Dr. Maryam Tabrizian
Editor-in-Chief, Materials

Dear Colleagues,

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

Dr. Alexander Sobolev
Department of Chemical Engineering, Ariel University, Ariel, Israel

Dr. Anca Mazare
1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Friedrich Alexander University of Erlangen Nurnberg, Erlangen, Germany
2. Advanced Institute for Materials Research (AIMR), National University Corporation Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan

Dr. László Almásy
Institute of Energy Security and Environmental Safety, Centre for Energy Research, Budapest, Hungary

Dr. Valerio Belardi
Department of Enterprise Engineering, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy

Dr. Wenbin Zhou
Faculty of Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Imperial College London, London, UK

Prof. Dr. Piotr A. Gauden
Adsorption and Catalysis Carbon Materials Application in Electrochemistry and Environmental Protection Reserch Group, Nicholas Copernicus University, Torun, Poland

The Prize for Each Winner:

• CHF 500;
• An opportunity to publish a paper free of charge in Materials in 2023 after peer review;
• A certificate.

Kind regards,
Materials Editorial Office

Dear Colleagues,

As the Editor-in-Chief of Materials, it is my great pleasure to announce the winner of the Materials 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:
“Ultrafast Processes in Perylene and Rubrene Systems: Singlet Fission, Excimer Formation and Charge Transfer” by Wenjun Ni, Dalian University of Technology, China

The winner will receive CHF 800, a certificate and a chance to publish a paper free of charge after peer review in Materials in 2023.

On behalf of the evaluation committee, I congratulate the winner on their 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. Maryam Tabrizian
Editor-in-Chief, Materials

Dear Colleagues,

As the Editor-in-Chief of Materials, I am pleased to announce the two winners of the 2022 Materials Guest Editor Award.

Dr. Grzegorz Chladek is the Guest Editor of the Special Issue “Composite and Polymeric Materials for Dentistry: Enhancing Antimicrobial and Mechanical Properties”, and he is a professor at Silesian University of Technology. He obtained his DSc, PhD and MSc degrees from the Silesian University of Technology. Dr. Grzegorz’s research interests focus on the engineering of materials, biomaterials, dental materials, composites and polymers, mechanical and performance properties.

Dr. Hyeon-Cheol Kim is the Guest Editor of the Special Issue “Contemporary Endodontic Materials”. He obtained his DDS, MSD and PhD from Pusan National University. Dr. Kim is an active member of the international endodontic society and is now the President at the APEC (Asian Pacific Endodontic Confederation). He has been actively lecturing on contemporary clinical Endodontics and materials based on his research evidence in many countries that hold global dental societies.

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

Prof. Dr. Maryam Tabrizian
Editor-in-Chief, Materials

Dear Colleagues,

The editorial team would like to congratulate the winners of the Materials 2022 Best Paper Award, who were chosen by a selection committee, chaired by the Editor-in-Chief Prof. Dr. Maryam Tabrizian. Following a review process by the award committee, the following six winners were selected:

Article:
First Prize: A Broadband Tunable Terahertz Metamaterial Absorber Based on Single-Layer Complementary Gammadion-Shaped Graphene (doi:10.3390/ma13040860)
By Fu Chen et al.

Second Prize: 3-D Printed Protective Equipment during COVID-19 Pandemic (doi:10.3390/ma13081997)
By Christian Wesemann et al.

Third Prize: On the Vibrations and Stability of Moving Viscoelastic Axially Functionally Graded Nanobeams (doi:10.3390/ma13071707)
By Ali Shariati et al.

Review:
First Prize: Brief History of Early Lithium Battery Development (doi:10.3390/ma13081884)
By Mogalahalli V. Reddy et al.

Second Prize: Face Masks and Respirators in the Fight Against the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Review of Current Materials, Advances and Future Perspectives (doi:10.3390/ma13153363)
By Kris O’Dowd et al.

Third Prize: Recent Trends in the Use of Pectin from Agro-Waste Residues as a Natural-Based Biopolymer for Food Packaging Applications (doi:10.3390/ma13030673)
By Cristina Mellinas et al.

Please join us in congratulating the winners of the Materials 2022 Best Paper Award. We would also like to take this opportunity to thank all of our authors for the continued support of Materials.

Materials Editorial Office

Dear Colleagues,

As Editor-in-Chief of Materials, I am pleased to announce the winners of the Materials 2022 Travel Award.

The award has been granted to Dr. Danila Merino, a postdoctoral researcher in the Smart Materials Group of the Italian Institute of Technology, and Ms. Elena Blundo, a PhD student at the Optical Spectroscopy of Nanostructured Materials Laboratory, Sapienza, University of Rome. Each of the winners will receive CHF 800 and a certificate.

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

Prof. Dr. Maryam Tabrizian
Editor-in-Chief, Materials

Dear Colleagues,

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

Dr. Khaled Giasin
School of Mechanical and Design Engineering, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, UK

Dr. Oldrich Sucharda
Department of Building Materials and Diagnostics of Structures, Faculty of Civil Engineering, VSB-Technical University of Ostrava, Ostrava, Czech Republic

Dr. Danil Pimenov
Department of Automated Mechanical Engineering, South Ural State University, Chelyabinsk, Russia

Prof. Dr. Marián Palcut
Faculty of Materials Science and Technology in Trnava, Institute of Materials Science, Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, Trnava, Slovakia

Kind regards,
Prof. Dr. Maryam Tabrizian
Editor-in-Chief, Materials

Dear Colleagues,

As Editor-in-Chief of Materials, I am pleased to announce the winner of the Matertials 2021 Best Ph.D. Thesis Award in recognition of a Ph.D. student who has produced a highly anticipated academic potential thesis.

The award has been granted to the following thesis and its author:
“Electrocatalysis of oxygen reduction on non-precious metal catalysts” by Mr. Sander Ratso, University of Tartu, Estonia.

The winner will receive CHF 800, a certificate, and the opportunity to publish a paper free of charge in Materials before the end of 2023.

On behalf of the evaluation committee, I congratulate the winner on accomplishment. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all the nominated researchers for their contributions to Materials and the Award
Committee for their work in the evaluation and decision processes.

Prof. Dr. Maryam Tabrizian
Editor-in-Chief, Materials

Dear Colleagues,

As the Editor-in-Chief of Materials, I am pleased to announce the two awardees for the 2021 Materials Guest Editor Awards.

Dr. Bora Gencturk is the Guest Editor of the Special Issue “Advances in Construction and Building Materials”, and is an Associate Professor in the Sonny Astani Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at the University of Southern California (USC). He obtained his PhD and MSc degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and his BSc degree from Bogazici University. Dr. Gencturk’s research focuses on the durability and extreme event resilience of reinforced concrete structures, with an emphasis on the application of high-performance materials. He specifically studies the degradation of cementitious materials due to environmental aging and investigates the application of higher-performance materials to mitigate these issues.

Dr. Eva María Rubio and Dr. Ana María Camacho are the Guest Editors of the Special Issue “Manufacturing Engineering Society-2020 (SIMES-2020)”, which aimed to explore the evolution of traditional manufacturing models toward the new requirements of Industry 4.0 and how manufacturing professionals should face the resulting competitive challenges. Dr. Eva María Rubio is also a Full Professor of Manufacturing Engineering at the Department of Construction and Manufacturing Engineering of the E.T.S. of Industrial Engineers of the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia. She received her MSc in Aeronautic Engineering from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid in 1997 and her PhD in Industrial Engineering from the UNED in 2002. Her scientific career has focused on the following research areas: analysis of machining and metal-forming processes, additive manufacturing, industrial metrology, and teaching and innovation in engineering. Dr. Ana María Camacho studies manufacturing engineering as her main research field, focusing on the analysis of metal-forming and additive manufacturing processes through computeraided engineering tools, analytical methods, and experimental testing in particular. She belongs to the “Industrial Production and Manufacturing Engineering-(IPME)” Research Group of the UNED.

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

Prof. Dr. Maryam Tabrizian
Editor-in-Chief, Materials

Dear Colleagues,

As Editor-in-Chief of Materials, I am pleased to announce the winners of the Materials Travel Awards for 2021. The awards have been granted to: Dr. Giulia Fredi and Dr. Mattia Biesuz.

Dr. Giulia Fredi is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Trento (Italy). Her main research interests involve (i) multifunctional polymer composites for thermal energy storage and management and (ii) renewable blends and nanocomposites based on bioderived poly(alkylene furanoate)s for packaging and textile applications. She will attend the 23rd International Conference on Composite Materials (ICCM23), held on 1–6 August 2021, in Belfast, UK.

Dr. Mattia Biesuz is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Czech Academy of Science (Czech Republic). His research interests include electric field-assisted processing of glasses and ceramics with a specific focus on flash sintering. Other research activities include: polymer-derived ceramics, ceramics joining, ion exchange technologies, cold sintering, high-entropy compounds, and porous ceramics for thermal energy storage. He will attend the “XVII European Ceramic Society (ECerS) Conference”, held on 29 August–2 September 2021, in Dresden, Germany.

With so many high-quality applicants, the evaluation process and final decision were challenging. We would like to thank all 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. Maryam Tabrizian
Editor-in-Chief, Materials

Dear Colleagues,

I am pleased to announce that Dr. Edoardo Baldini is the winner of the Materials 2021 Young Investigator Award. The award consists of a certificate, 2000 CHF, and a rapid open access publication free of charge in Materials. Dr. Edoardo Baldini’s track record of achievements is impressive for a young investigator at this stage of his career. To date, he has published over 30 papers and has delivered over 20 invited presentations.

Dr. Edoardo Baldini was born and raised in Pavia, Italy. He specialized in the field of the ultrafast spectroscopy of condensed matter at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, from which he obtained a Ph.D. degree in Physics in 2017. During his Ph.D. in the groups of Prof. Majed Chergui and Prof. Fabrizio Carbone, he successfully implemented novel femtosecond laser spectroscopy techniques to unravel the dynamics of collective excitations (e.g., excitons, phonons, plasmons...) in different classes of quantum materials. Later, his thesis was published as a book by Springer Nature. Since 2017, Dr. Edoardo Baldini has been a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he is exploring advanced laser schemes for the ultrafast manipulation of quantum materials together with Prof. Nuh Gedik. His current research interests include the non-equilibrium dynamics of cooperative systems, light-induced phase transitions, and the coherent control of collective modes. Apart from science, his passions include playing classical piano and exploring black and white photography.

I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all applicants for their interest in this competition, as well as to the members of the multidisciplinary selection committee for their dedication and hard work which made this possible. We received very high-quality applications and it was a very difficult decision to determine our final winner.

On behalf of the editorial office, please join us in congratulating Dr. Edoardo Baldini for his achievements. We are very proud to support young scientists and wish them further success in their careers.

Editor-in-Chief of Materials
Prof. Dr. Maryam Tabrizian
Department of Biomedical Engineering and Faculty of Dentistry
McGill University

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce that the following reviewers (in alphabetical order by surname) have been selected as the winners of the Materials 2020 Outstanding Reviewer Awards in appreciation of the high number, timeliness, and quality of their reviews in 2020. Each winner will receive a certificate, CHF 500 and a CHF 1000 voucher for one paper published in Materials within one year.

Fábio Fernandes, University of Aveiro, Portugal.
Mohannad Z. Naser, Clemson University, USA.
Miguel Ángel Sanjuán, Technical University of Madrid, Spain.
Miroslaw Szala, Lublin University of Technology, Poland.

Congratulations to all of the winners for their excellent reviews. The Materials Editorial Board and Editorial Team would like to acknowledge all reviewers who have generously dedicated their time and efforts toward reviewing manuscripts submitted to Materials. Due to their outstanding contributions, the high scientific quality of the journal and fast article processing are constantly maintained.

Kind regards,
Materials Editorial Office
[email protected]
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/materials

Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of the Materials Award Committee, I am pleased to announce the winner of the Materials Travel Award 2020. This year’s Travel Award has been granted to an excellent PhD student, MS. Ana Carolina Constâncio Trindade. Please join us in congratulating her.

MS. Ana Carolina Constâncio Trindade is from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio/Brazil). She will attend the BEFIB 2020, which will be held on 21–23 September 2020, in Valencia, Spain.

I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all applicants for their interest in this competition, as well as to our Selection Committees for their incredible involvement in this difficult task.

Materials is very proud to support young scientists and will keep supporting them by continuing a variety of award projects.

Editor-in-Chief of Materials
Prof. Dr. Maryam Tabrizian
Department of Biomedical Engineering and Faculty of Dentistry McGill University

Materials (ISSN 1996-1944; CODEN: MATEG9) is a peer-reviewed open access journal of materials science and engineering published semi-monthly online by MDPI. The journal is indexed by SCIE (Web of Science), EI and Scopus. Its 2018 Impact Factor is 2.972, and its five-year Impact Factor is 3.532. For further details, please refer to https://www.mdpi.com/journal/materials/stats.

Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of the Materials Award Committee, I am pleased to announce the winners of the Materials 2019 Travel Awards. With the aim of supporting junior scientists to attend international scientific conferences, this year Travel Awards have been granted to an exceptional PhD student, Ms. Barbora Balonova and an outstanding postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Katerina Christofidou.

Ms. Barbora Balonova, a PhD Student from University of New Brunswick, Canada. Her PhD project is focused on synthesis and color tuning of iridium complexes for OLED applications. She will attend the 257th ACS National Spring Meeting, held on 31 March–4 April 2019, in Orlando, FL, USA.

Dr. Katerina Christofidou, a post-doctoral fellow from the University of Cambridge, UK. Her research focuses on the physical metallurgy of Ni-based and Co-based superalloys and their manufacturing through powder methods, as well as understanding the underlying metallurgy and thermodynamics of transition metal high entropy alloys. She will attend the TMS 2019 Annual Meeting and Exhibition, held on 10–14 March 2019, in San Antonio, TX, USA.

With many high-quality applications for the awards, to make the final decision was extremely difficult. I highly appreciate the effort of all applicants for submitting their diverse and fascinating range of research topics. On behalf of Materials members, I congratulate the winners for their accomplishments, and wish them further success in their career.

Dear Colleagues,

I am pleased to announce Dr. Mathieu Bauchy as the winner of Materials Young Investigator Award 2019. The award consists of a framed certificate, 2000 CHF, and a rapid open access publilication free of charge in Materials. Dr. Mathieu Bauchy’s track record of achivements is impressive for a young invetigator at this stage of his career. So far, he has published more than 100 papers and has delivered over 60 invited presentations.

Dr. Bauchy received his undergraduate degree in physics from Ecole Normale Supérieure (Paris, France) and then pursued a Ph.D. in condensed matter at Université Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris). After completion of his PhD, he joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a postdoctoral fellow. Since 2014, Dr. Bauchy has been an Assistant Professor in the Civil & Environmental Engineering Department at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he directs the Physics of AmoRphous and Inorganic Solids Laboratory (PARISlab). Dr. Bauchy’s research focuses on revealing the physics governing the behavior of disordered materials—with a focus on deciphering the linkages between materials’ composition, structure, and properties. To this end, Mathieu Bauchy’s group relies on multi-scale simulations, topological modeling, and machine learning.

I would also like to aknowledge the other three candidates on our short list, namely Dr. Run Zhang from The University of Queensland, Australia; Dr. Qi Li from Tsinghua University, China; and Dr. Arghya Paul from The University of Kansas, USA, for their impressive track records.

I take the opportunity to express my gratitude to all applicants for their interest in this competition, as well as to the members of the multidisciplinary selection committee for their dedication and hard work to make this possible. We have received very high quality applications and it was a very difficult decision to determine our final winner.

On behalf of editorial office, please join us in congratulating Dr. Mathieu Bauchy for his achievements. We are very proud to support young scientists and wish them further success in their careers.

The Materials Editorial Office would like to gratefully acknowledge the time and energy given by reviewers in evaluating manuscripts submitted to the journal. It is thanks to their efforts that the high quality of the journal and quick submission-to-publication process are maintained.

The following referees have been selected to receive Materials Outstanding Reviewer Awards 2018 for the quantity, timeliness, and quality of their reviews in 2018. Each of them will receive 500 CHF, a 1000 CHF voucher for one paper published in Materials, and a certificate for their outstanding review work:

Dr. Durejko Tomasz

Military University of Technology, Poland

Dr. Maciej Szeląg

Lublin University of Technology, Poland

Professor Jan Jezierski

Silesian University of Technology, Poland

Dr. Shima Ehtemam Haghighi

University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia

Dr. Abdollah Saboori

Politecnico di Torino, Italy

Dear Colleagues, Fellows and Trainees:

As Editor-in-Chief of Materials, it is my immense pleasure to announce the winners of the 2018 Travel Awards sponsored by Materials.

I take the opportunity to express my gratitude to all applicants for their interest in this competition as well as to our Selection Committees for their incredible involvement in this difficult task. We had many impressive dossiers for this award from all over the world and selecting two Follows among them was a very difficult task.

Mr Ankit Gupta, a Ph.D. student at the Max-Planck Institut für Eisenforschung, Germany and Dr. Carlo Massaroni, a postdoctoral researcher at the Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, Italy are the Materials 2018 Travel Awards winners. Please join me to congratulate them for their achievements. Each Awardee will receive 800 Swiss Francs towards the participation in an international conference:

• Mr Ankit Gupta will present his work entitled “First-principles investigation of thermodynamics and precipitation kinetics in Al-Sc alloys” at the “TMS 2018 Annual Meeting and Exhibition” which will be held on March 11th, 2018 in Phoenix, AZ, USA.
• Dr. Carlo Massaroni will present his work entitled “Multi-sensitive FBG-based needle for both relative humidity and breathing rate monitoring” at the “13th Annual IEEE International Symposium on Medical Measurements and Applications (MeMeA 2018)” which will be held on June 11th, 2018 in Rome, Italy.

Materials is very proud to support young scientists and looks forward to receive more applications for 2019 Travel Awards including those that could not be awarded this time.

Editor-in-Chief of Materials
Prof. Dr. Maryam Tabrizian
Department of Biomedical Engineering and Fcaulty of Dentistry
McGill University

Dear readers of Materials,

After an extensive voting period, we are proud to announce Dr. Andrea Alù as the first winner of the Materials Young Investigator Award who is a Full Professor and the Temple Foundation Endowed Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, at the University of Texas, Austin, USA. He was the outstanding candidate, as voted for by the evaluation committee of the Materials Investigator Award, out of 36 candidates who were each proposed by at least two other colleagues from the broad field of materials science.

Dr. Alù received his Ph.D. with Professor Lucio Vegni and Professor Nader Engheta at the University of Roma Tre in 2007 and did postdoctoral training at the University of Pennsylvania under the supervision of Professor Nader Engheta. At the age of 37, Dr. Alù has already achieved an extraordinary standing in the materials community. Dr. Alù’s scientific work over the past few years has been focused on the conception, modeling and application of nanostructured artificial materials and metamaterials to mold electromagnetic waves, light and sound in exotic ways, going beyond the limits and challenges associated with the use of natural materials. To date, he has co-authored over 345 journal papers, edited one book, 28 book chapters, and 552 conference papers. His work has not only led to prime level basic research, but has also shown to be highly relevant for engineering, achieving significant impact in materials science and beyond.

On behalf of the Materials Editorial office staff and editorial board members, I wish to congratulate Dr. Andrea Alù for his excellent performance and wish him all the best for his future career.

Maryam Tabrizian,
Editor-in-Chief, Materials