Announcements

Conference: 15th European Congress on Catalysis (EuropaCat 2023)
Date: 27 August–1 September 2023
Location: Prague, Czech Republic

MDPI will be attending EuropaCat 2023 as an exhibitor. We welcome researchers from different backgrounds to visit and share their latest ideas with us.

EuropaCat has become a traditional meeting place for scientists and researchers from academia and industry who are based all over Europe. Consequently, it has developed into a forum to discuss important challenges in the field of catalysis and the related industrial areas and beyond. The conference is jointly organized by the catalysis societies of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Molecules;
• Catalysts;
• Applied Sciences;
• Chemistry;
• Materials;
• Nanomaterials;
• Photochem;
• Separations;
• Symmetry.

If you are planning to attend this conference, please do not hesitate to start an online conversation with us. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person and answering any questions that you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit the following website: https://www.europacat2023.cz/.

With the first issue released in June 2023, five new MDPI journals disseminating multi-disciplinary science are due to launch, which will cover the subjects of medicine & pharmacology, biology and physical sciences.

The newly launched journals will be overseen by professional Editorial Board Members and Editors to ensure an accurate and rapid publication, rigorous peer review and broad visibility.

Please feel free to browse and discover more about the new journals below.

Journal	Founding Editor-in-Chief	Journal topics (selected)
	Prof. Dr. Jun Ma, Peking University, China| Editorial | view inaugural issue	growth and development; diet and nutrients; school health promotion policies and practices; child health and care; adolescent health and wellbeing | view journal scope | submit an article
	Prof. Dr. Bernd Rehm, Griffith University, Australia | Editorial | view inaugural issue	DNA and gene synthesis; synthetic transcription factors; protein engineering; viral engineering; metabolic engineering | view journal scope | submit an article
	Prof. Dr. Varsha Gandhi, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, USA | Editorial | view inaugural issue	lymphatics; cancers associated with lymphocytes and lymphoblasts; lymphatic tissues; lymphoma; lymphoid leukemia | view journal scope | submit an article
	Dr. Bradley Turner, University of Melbourne, Australia | Editorial | view inaugural issue	multiple sclerosis; amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; primary lateral sclerosis; atherosclerosis; systemic sclerosis | view journal scope | submit an article
	Prof. Dr. Clemens Burda, Case Western Reserve University, USA | Editorial | view inaugural issue	Gamma ray, X-ray, and UV–Vis spectroscopies; NIR/mid-infrared/Raman spectroscopy; microwave and THz spectroscopy; high-resolution gas-phase atomic, molecular, and cluster spectroscopy; MS, NMR, and EPR spectroscopy | view journal scope | submit an article

We wish to thank everyone who has supported the development of open access publishing. You are welcome to submit an application to the New Journal Committee (newjournal-committee@mdpi.com) if you would like to create more new journals.

MDPI journals will be attending the Chinese Physical Society Fall Meeting 2023 as exhibitors. This meeting will be held in Yinchuan, China, from 17 to 20 August 2023.

The conference will offer 20 sub-topics, namely: 1. particle physics, field theory and cosmology; 2. nuclear physics and accelerator physics; 3. atomic and molecular physics; 4. light physics; 5. plasma physics; 6. nano and mesoscopic physics; 7. surface and low-dimensional physics; 8. semiconductor physics; 9. strong correlation and superconductivity physics; 10. magnetism; 11. soft condensed matter physics and biophysics; 12. quantum information; 13. computational physics; 14. statistical physics and complex systems; 15. dielectric physics; 16. liquid crystal; 17. ultrafast physics; 18. high energy density physics; 19 topological materials, physics and devices; 20. physics education.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Symmetry;
• Entropy;
• Physics;
• Dynamics;
• Particles;
• Photonics;
• Mathematics;
• Plasma;
• QuBS;
• Galaxies;
• Atoms;
• Optics.

If you are attending this conference, please feel free to start a conversation with us. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person and answering any questions you may have. For more information about the conference and our booth, please visit the following link: http://meeting.cps-net.org.cn/nxu2023.

On 25 May 2023, MDPI and the journal Symmetry (ISSN: 2073-8994) organized a webinar The Dark Universe: The Harbinger of a Major Discovery. The webinar focused on the questions “What is dark matter?” and “What is dark energy?”. The webinar provided new perspectives, highlighted current impacts, and encouraged new challenges in global research on the Dark Universe.

Prof. Ariel Zhitnitsky first developed the new theory for DM and charge asymmetry in the Universe. Prof. Michael Tobar showed us the impacts of novel techniques to detect DM axions. Prof. Abaz Kryemadhi introduced the DM streams as a new detection concept. Dr. Javier Miguel gave a short presentation of a new proposal for DM axion detection (DALI).

After all the presentations, Prof. Konstantin Zioutas organized the discussion (Q&A) session. The chair and speakers answered questions raised by scholars one by one. The webinar then came to a successful conclusion.

Relevant feature papers:

"Comparing Instrument Spectral Sensitivity of Dissimilar Electromagnetic Haloscopes to Axion Dark Matter and High Frequency Gravitational Waves"
by Michael E. Tobar, Catriona A. Thomson, William M. Campbell, Aaron Quiskamp, Jeremy F. Bourhill, Benjamin T. McAllister, Eugene N. Ivanov and Maxim Goryachev
Symmetry 2022, 14(10), 2165; https://doi.org/10.3390/sym14102165

"Gaia, Fundamental Physics, and Dark Matter"
by Michael Perryman and Konstantin Zioutas
Symmetry 2022, 14(4), 721; https://doi.org/10.3390/sym14040721

"Infrasonic, Acoustic and Seismic Waves Produced by the Axion Quark Nuggets"
by Dmitry Budker, Victor V. Flambaum and Ariel Zhitnitsky
Symmetry 2022, 14(3), 459; https://doi.org/10.3390/sym14030459

You can watch the recorded webinar at the following link:

Webinar Chair and Keynote Speakers:

• Dr. Konstantin Zioutas, Department of Physics, University of Patras, Patra, Greece and CAST Spokesperson at CERN, Geneva, Switzerland;
• Dr. Ariel Zhitnitsky, Department of Physics & Astronomy, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada;
• Dr. Michael Tobar, Department of Physics, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia;
• Dr. Abaz Kryemadhi, Department of Physics, Messiah College, Mechanicsburg, United States;
• Javier De Miguel, Riken, Japan.

MDPI will attend the 21st National Conference on Catalysis. This event of the Chinese Chemical Society will be held from 21 to 25 July 2023 in Kunming, China, and is hosted by the Catalysis Professional Committee of the Chinese Chemical Society. The event is being jointly organized by Yunnan University, Kunming University of Science and Technology, and Yunnan Precious Metals Laboratory.

This conference is the largest academic conference at the highest level in the field of catalysis in China and is held every two years. The theme of the conference is "Catalytic Science and Technology for Two-Carbon Strategy", and its topics will cover both the development of frontier technology and basic research into catalysis in the fields of chemical industry, energy, environment, materials, biology, pharmaceuticals, analysis, etc.

The conference program will include invited reports, oral reports, poster presentations, forums, creative pop-up sessions, etc. During the conference, the Catalysis Professional Committee will issue the “Ninth China Catalysis Award”. The conference will also organize well-known manufacturers in the field of catalysis to carry out related product exhibitions and technical exchanges and arrange special workshops on their applications.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Catalysts;
• Symmetry;
• Inorganics;
• Crystals;
• Sustainable Chemistry;
• Chemistry;
• Molbank;
• Electrochem.

If you plan on attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth (#C035) and start a conversation with us. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person and answering any questions that you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit https://21ncc.scimeeting.cn/cn/web/index/16736.

The 2022 citation metrics have been released in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR), and we’re pleased to announce the following results for MDPI journals:

We are thrilled to announce that 90% of our ranked MDPI journals, specifically 86 out of 96 (captured in the table below), are performing above average in Q1 or Q2. This year, Clarivate has expanded its Impact Factor (IF) awards to include journals in the Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI) and the Arts and Humanities Citation Index (AHCI), providing greater transparency for the full set of journals indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection. As a result, 111 of MDPI journals have received their first IF in 2023, with 37 journals surpassing an IF of 3.0. In total, 208 MDPI journals have been honored with an IF.

Clarivate explains that by "expanding the coverage but holding to highly selective standards, the [Impact Factor] is now a reliable indicator of trustworthiness, as well as a measure of scholarly impact, at the journal level."

Please visit our blog post where we discuss the release of the latest citation metrics with our Indexing Manager, Dr. Constanze Schelhorn, to find out what's different this time around and how to make use of different metrics available.

Note: The Journal of Personalized Medicine's Impact Factor was omitted in the original release and will be assigned separately. Please find the data on the journal webpage in due course.

Source: 2022 Journal Impact Factors, Journal Citation Reports ^TM (Clarivate, 2023)

International Asteroid Day is observed annually on 30 June to mark the date of Earth’s largest asteroid impact in recorded history, the Siberia Tunguska event. It was established by the United Nations in 2016 to increase public awareness of the risk of an asteroid impact and to inform the public about crisis communication actions to be taken at the global level in the event of a credible NEO threat.

To further explore the related research on the 2023 International Asteroid Day, we have gathered open access academic articles on the topic of asteroids. We hope to share the up-to-date scientific knowledge in the field of asteroids with the world on this special day.

“Applied Trajectory Design for CubeSat Close-Proximity Operations around Asteroids: The Milani Case”
by Claudio Bottiglieri, Felice Piccolo, Carmine Giordano, Fabio Ferrari and Francesco Topputo
Aerospace 2023, 10(5), 464; https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace10050464

“Fitting Power Spectrum of Scalar Perturbations for Primordial Black Hole Production during Inflation”
by Daniel Frolovsky and Sergei V. Ketov
Astronomy 2023, 2(1), 47-57; https://doi.org/10.3390/astronomy2010005

“Avoiding the “Great Filter”: A Projected Timeframe for Human Expansion Off-World”
by Jonathan H. Jiang, Philip E. Rosen and Kristen A. Fahy
Galaxies 2021, 9(3), 53; https://doi.org/10.3390/galaxies9030053

“History of the Terminal Cataclysm Paradigm: Epistemology of a Planetary Bombardment That Never (?) Happened”
by William K. Hartmann
Geosciences 2019, 9(7), 285; https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences9070285

“Small All-Range Lidar for Asteroid and Comet Core Missions”
by Xiaoli Sun, Daniel R. Cremons, Erwan Mazarico, Guangning Yang, James B. Abshire, David E. Smith, Maria T. Zuber, Mark Storm, Nigel Martin, Jacob Hwang et al.
Sensors 2021, 21(9), 3081; https://doi.org/10.3390/s21093081

“Trajectories Derived from Periodic Orbits around the Lagrangian Point L1 and Lunar Swing-Bys: Application in Transfers to Near-Earth Asteroids”
by Rebeca S. Ribeiro, Cristiano F. de Melo and Antônio F. B. A. Prado
Symmetry 2022, 14(6), 1132; https://doi.org/10.3390/sym14061132

“Capture in Regime of a Trapped Motion with Further Inelastic Collision for Finite-Sized Asteroid in ER3BP”
by Sergey Ershkov, Dmytro Leshchenko and Alla Rachinskaya
Symmetry 2022, 14(8), 1548; https://doi.org/10.3390/sym14081548

“New Tools for the Optimized Follow-Up of Imminent Impactors”
by Maddalena Mochi and Giacomo Tommei
Universe 2021, 7(1), 10; https://doi.org/10.3390/universe7010010

“Near-Earth Asteroid Capture via Using Lunar Flyby plus Earth Aerobraking”
by Yirui Wang and Mingtao Li
Universe 2021, 7(9), 316; https://doi.org/10.3390/universe7090316

“Short-Term Consequences of Asteroid Impacts into the Ocean: A Portuguese Case Study”
by Renato H. Morais, Luís F. F. M. Santos, André R. R. Silva and Rui Melicio
Universe 2022, 8(5), 279; https://doi.org/10.3390/universe8050279

On 18 May 2023, MDPI and the journal Symmetry (ISSN: 2073-8994) organized a webinar Symmetry beyond the Standard Models of Cosmology, High Energy Physics and Quantum Field Theory. The webinar focused on the fundamental relationship between cosmology and particle physics.

Please note that this webinar is associated with a Special Issue in Symmetry “Symmetry beyond the Standard Models of Cosmology, High Energy Physics and Quantum Field Theory”, for which the deadline is 30 June 2023.

You can watch the recorded webinar at the following link: https://youtu.be/Gl1dmXChUyY.

Webinar Chair and Keynote Speakers:

• Prof. Dr. Maxim Khlopov, ¹ Director of Virtual Institute of Astroparticle Physics, Paris, France; ² National Research Nuclear University MEPhI, President of Center for Cosmoparticle Physics Cosmion, Main Researcher of Research Institute of Physics of Southern Federal University, Russia;
• Prof. Dr. Antonino Marciano, ¹ Department of Physics, Fudan University, 200437 Shanghai, China; ² INFN—Frascati Laboratories, 00044 Frascati RM, Italy;
• Dr. Roman Pasechnik, Department of Physics, University of Lund, Lund, Scania, Sweden.

A range of MDPI journals will be attending the 2023 National Polymer Academic Paper Conference of the Chinese Chemical Society as exhibitors. This meeting will be held in Wuhan, China, from 13 to 17 October 2023. 

The National Polymer Academic Paper Conference of the Chinese Chemical Society, which has been held every two years since 1954, is the most important, largest and most influential academic conference in the field of polymers in China. The 2023 National Polymer Academic Paper Conference of the Chinese Chemical Society will be held in Wuhan from 13 to 17 October. It will be sponsored by the Polymer Science Committee of the Chinese Chemical Society and Huazhong University of Science and Technology. 

The conference will take the important function of polymer science and technology in the new era of national economy and society as the entry point. It will focus on showing the research results and development trends of our country’s polymer science and materials field in recent years. It provides a broad academic and technical exchange platform for those sci-tech, education, and industry workers and young students who conduct research and development in the field. The aim is to promote the sustainable development and innovation of polymer science, improve the level of interdisciplinary and cutting-edge research of polymer-related disciplines, connect with the major national needs, overcome the core and key technical problems, and promote the transformation of scientific research results. 

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Polymers;
• IJMS;
• Molecules;
• Gels;
• Membranes;
• Crystals;
• Polysaccharides;
• Symmetry;
• Fibers. 

If you are attending this conference, please feel free to start a conversation with us at our booth. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person and answering any questions that you may have. 

For more information about the conference, please visit https://www.bagevent.com/event/8282755/p/504954.