Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of the Evaluation Committee, we are pleased to announce that the winners of the Microorganisms 2022 Young Investigator Award are Dr. Lorena Rodriguez-Rubio, Dr. Kevin Solomon and Dr. Carla Rodrigues.

Dr. Lorena Rodriguez-Rubio has been an assistant professor at the University of Barcelona, Spain, since 2020. The main goal of her research career has been the use of basic research in microbiology, specifically in bacteriophages, to find solutions to some of the problems or needs of society. She has focused her research on two closely related areas: food and health.

Dr. Kevin Solomon is an Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Delaware in the United States. His work focuses on identifying and developing environmental microbes with next-generation synthetic biology tools that are well-adapted for applications in sustainability, materials, and health.

Dr. Carla Rodrigues has since 2023 been the deputy director of the National Reference Center of Whooping Cough and other Bordetella infections hosted at the Biodiversity and Epidemiology of Bacterial Pathogens (BEBP) unit,
headed by Dr. Sylvain Brisse at Institut Pasteur, Paris, France. She was awarded the Young Investigation Award—Isabel Spencer Martins by the Portuguese Society of Microbiology in 2017 based on the scientific achievements of her PhD project.

As the first awardee, Dr. Lorena Rodriguez-Rubio will receive a prize of CHF 2000, and as the second awardees, Dr. Kevin Solomon and Dr. Carla Rodrigues will each receive a prize of CHF 1000. All awardees also have the option to publish a paper free of charge before 31 December 2023 in Microorganisms after completing the peer review process, and they will each receive an engraved plaque.

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.

Microorganisms 2022 Young Investigator Evaluation Committee