Dear Colleagues,

The journal Water (MDPI, Switzerland, ISSN 2073-4441, mdpi.com/journal/water) is inviting applications for the Water 2021 Best Ph.D. Thesis Award. This prize will be awarded to a PhD student who is about to graduate or participate in the graduation thesis. The applications will be assessed by an Evaluation Committee consisting of senior scholars from the Water Editorial Board.

Eligibility Requirements:

– The candidate must be a PhD student who is going to graduate or participate in graduation thesis defenses.
– The PhD thesis must be original work.
– The PhD thesis must be defended between 1 January 2021 and 31 October 2021.

Required Application Documents:

– An executive summary of the PhD thesis in English, of around 3000 words;
– A letter from PhD supervisor recommending the candidate for consideration for this award;
– The candidate’s CV, including a list of publications connected with the thesis;
– An electronic copy of the PhD thesis;
– A scanned copy of the PhD diploma (or a certificate of studying at a university or research institute as a PhD student who is going to participate in graduation thesis defenses).

Selection Criteria:

– Quality of resume and publications;
– Relevance of the candidate and research description;
– Novelty of the candidate’s PhD thesis;
– Strength of the recommendation letter;
– Anticipated academic potential;
– Originality and impact of the research.

Prizes:

– Bonus (800 CHF);
– Certificate;
– Offer to publish a free paper in Water before the end of 2022.

How to Apply?

– Please submit your application materials via the Water Journal Award website (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/water/awards).

The application deadline is 10 November 2021. The winner will be announced on the Water website by the end of January 2022.

Please feel free to contact us at [email protected] with any questions.

The editorial team would like to congratulate the winners of the Water 2021 Best Paper Awards, who were chosen by a selection committee chaired by the Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Jean-Luc PROBST. Following a review process by the Evaluation Committee, six winners were selected. The recipients of the “Water 2021 Best Paper Awards” are as follows:

Rank 1 Award: (800 CHF + one free publication)

Water Quality Indices: Challenges and Application Limits in the Literature (doi: 10.3390/w11020361)
By Moez Kachroud, Fabienne Trolard, Mohamed Kefi, Sihem Jebari and Guilhem Bourrié

Rank 2 Awards: (500 CHF + one free publication)

A Brief Review of Random Forests for Water Scientists and Practitioners and Their Recent History in Water Resources (doi: 10.3390/w11050910)
By Hristos Tyralis, Georgia Papacharalampous and Andreas Langousis

The Use of Non-Conventional Water Resources as a Means of Adaptation to Drought and Climate Change in Semi-Arid Regions: South-Eastern Spain (doi: 10.3390/w11010093)
By Álvaro-Francisco Morote, Jorge Olcina and María Hernández

Rank 3 Awards: (300 CHF + one free publication)

Hydrological Effectiveness of an Extensive Green Roof in Mediterranean Climate (doi: 10.3390/w11071378)
By Stefania Anna Palermo, Michele Turco, Francesca Principato and Patrizia Piro

Forecasting Groundwater Table in a Flood Prone Coastal City with Long Short-term Memory and Recurrent Neural Networks (doi: 10.3390/w11051098)
By Benjamin D. Bowes, Jeffrey M. Sadler, Mohamed M. Morsy, Madhur Behl and Jonathan L. Goodall

Effectiveness of Rainwater Harvesting Systems for Flood Reduction in Residential Urban Areas (doi: 10.3390/w11071389)
By Gabriele Frenib and Lorena Liuzzo

The valid date of the free publication is by the end of 2021.

Please join us in congratulating the winners of Water 2021 Best Paper Awards. We would also like to take this opportunity to thank all of our authors for your continued support of Water.

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce that the winner of the Water 2021 Young Investigator Award is Dr. Stefanos Giannakis.

Dr. Stefanos Giannakis is a Research Professor at the Polytechnic University of Madrid, Spain. His research and outstanding scientific contribution in the field of water resources is specifically focused on water/wastewater treatment. Dr. Stefanos Giannakis’s research interests are (i) development of novel sustainable water treatment processes, (ii) the fundamentals governing microorganism disinfection, (iii) photochemistry and photobiology of natural waters, and (iv) urban and industrial wastewater treatment by advanced oxidation processes. Dr. Stefanos Giannakis received his PhDs in 2014 (from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh), Greece, and Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), Catalonia, Spain) and has an outstanding publication record, comprising 71 publications in peer-reviewed international journals. Stefanos’s Scopus Scientific Citations number is 1474, and his Hirsch index is 27. Not only is he the No. 5 author in “Solar Disinfection” worldwide, but he is also the No. 4 author in the “Disinfection/Photocatalysis/Inactivation” topic, as seen in Scopus. He was among the first to observe the connection between the disruption of physiological life-cycle activities of bacteria under UVA light and the formulation that this is indeed an oxidative, intracellular process. Dr. Stefanos Giannakis worked on both the chemical and microbiological aspects of the problem, and it would be fair to say that his intuitive and transdisciplinary approach has created a new niche, in which he is already considered an expert. Please join us in congratulating Dr. Stefanos Giannakis for his outstanding achievements.

As the awardee, Dr. Stefanos Giannakis will receive 2000 CHF, an offer to publish a paper free of charge before 31 December 2021 in Water after peer review, and an engraved plaque.

We would like to thank all the nominees from various fields of study for their participation and all the Award Committee Members for their evaluation of the abundant excellent nominations.

Dr. Jean-luc Probst
Editor-in-Chief, Water, on behalf of Water 2021 Young Investigator Award Evaluation Committee.

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce that the Water Travel Awards for 2021 were granted to the following three excellent applicants:

Dr. Nnanake-Abasi Okon Offiong, Postdoctoral Researcher at International Centre for Energy and Environmental Sustainability Research (ICEESR), University of Uyo, Nigeria; Dr. Tonni Agustiono Kurniawan, Postdoctoral Researcher at Polytechnic of Health (Indonesia); and Dr. Shawna Andrea Foo, Postdoctoral Researcher Scientist at Arizona State University. They will receive 800 Swiss Francs each to attend an international conference in 2021.

Dr. Nnanake-Abasi Okon Offiong plans to present his work entitled “Impacts of Climate Variability and Soil Erosion on Water Quality of a Humid Tropical River” at the IUPAC World Chemistry Congress.

Dr. Tonni Agustiono Kurniawan plans to present his work entitled “From Unused Waste to Circular Economy: Recovering Concentrated Metallic Waste and Its Conversion into Zn2Cr-Layered Double Hydroxide for Treatment of Electroplating Wastewater” at the IWA World Water Congress & Exhibition 2021. Dr. Shawna Andrea Foo plans to present her work entitled “The Role of Remotely Sensed Oceanographic Variables in Coral Reef Restoration Outcomes” at the 14th International Coral Reef Symposium.

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

Dr. Jean-Luc PROBST
Editor-in-Chief, Water

Dr. Marina Manca
Dr. Kevin Strychar
Prof. Dr. Maria Filomena Camões
The members of the Evaluation Committee

Dear Colleagues,

The Water Editorial Board and Editorial Team would like to gratefully acknowledge the time and energy given by reviewers in assessing the manuscripts submitted to the journal. With their great support, high scientific quality and quick turnaround of the Water journal are maintained.

Here, we are pleased to announce the winners of Outstanding Reviewer Awards 2020:

1. A certificate with 500 Swiss Francs (CHF) and one 50% discount on a Water paper in 2021

– Prof. Demetrio Antonio Zema
   Department AGRARIA - Mediterranean University of Reggio Calabria, Reggio Calabria, Italy

– Prof. Dr. Shengrui Wang
   College of Water Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China

– Dr. Wiktor Halecki
   Institute of Environmental Engineering, Department of Hydrology, Meteorology and Water Management, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Warsaw, Poland

– Prof. Karoly Nemeth
   School of Agriculture and Environment, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

– Prof. Do-Hun Lee
   Department of Civil Engineering, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Korea

2. A certificate with one 50% discount on a Water paper in 2021

– Dr. Md Abul Ehsan Bhuiyan
   Northeast Climate Adaptation Science Center, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA

– Prof. Tetsuya Hiraishi
   Fluvial Disaster Research Center, Disaster Prevention Research Institute, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

– Prof. Dr. Laleh Yerushalmi
   Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Concordia University, Montréal, QC, Canada

– Prof. Dr. Enrico Creaco
   Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy

– Prof. Paolo Villani
   Hydraulic Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Salerno, Fisciano, Italy

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce that the winner of the 2020 Water Young Investigator Award is Dr. Case van Genuchten.

Dr. Case van Genuchten is a researcher in the Geochemistry Department of the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland. He is passionate about developing drinking water treatment technologies for areas lacking resources and infrastructure. In particular, he has spent recent years designing, implementing, and field testing arsenic removal technologies in rural arsenicaffected communities in South Asia. Dr. Case van Genuchten’s unique research integrates laboratory experiments and rigorous field-testing with sophisticated synchrotron-based characterization techniques to determine the chemical reactions that underpin the efficiency of water treatment technologies. He is inspired by new research in the fields of development engineering and humanitarian engineering, which are interdisciplinary fields that combine technology design, social science, and business studies. He was honored to receive the 2020 Water Young Investigator Award and pledges to continue to push his work in technology development for resource-scarce communities in the future. Please join us in congratulating Dr. Case van Genuchten for his outstanding achievements.

As the awardee, Dr. Case van Genuchten will receive an honorarium of 2000 CHF, an offer to publish a paper free of charge without a fixed deadline in Water, and an engraved plaque.

We would like to thank all the applicants in various fields of study for their participation and all the Award Committee members for their evaluation of the many excellent applications.

The competition for the 2021 Water Young Investigator Award will be open from September 2020. Please check https://www.mdpi.com/journal/water/awards for more information closer to that date.

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce that the Water Travel Awards for 2020 were granted to the following three excellent applicants:

Dr. Amen Al-Yaari, assistant professor at Sorbonne University, France; Ms. Qianqian Zhang, Ph.D. candidate at McMaster University, Canada; and Dr. Alex Chee Yu Yeung, researcher at The University of British Columbia, Canada. They will receive 800 Swiss Francs each to attend an international conference in 2020.

Dr. Amen Al-Yaari planned to present his work entitled “Effects of Irrigation on Global Climate Patterns” at The General Assembly 2020 of the European Geosciences Union (EGU).

Ms. Qianqian Zhang planned to present her work entitled “Robust Optimization for Water Quality Management under Uncertainty: A Case Study of the Central Grand River Region in Ontario, Canada” at 2020 Annual Water Resources Conference.

Dr. Alex Chee Yu Yeung planned to present his work entitled “Assessing the Biodegradability of ‘Compostable’ Carrier Bags in the Natural Stream Environment” at ASLO-SFS 2020 Joint Summer Meeting.

However, given the rapidly escalating situation regarding COVID-19, many conferences (including EGU 2020 and ASLO-SFS 2020 Joint Summer Meeting) have been either cancelled or changed to online form worldwide. We wish the best of luck to the award winners to present their works at other conferences on later occasions.

The evaluation process is difficult, as there were many excellent applications for the awards. We would like to thank all the applicants for their participation and all the Award Committee members for their time devoted to evaluation. On behalf of Water, we congratulate the winners for their accomplishments.

Dr. Jean-Luc PROBST
Chair of the Evaluation Committee

Prof. Athanasios Loukas
Prof. Adriano A. Bordalo
Prof. Y. Jun Xu
Prof. Enedir Ghisi
Prof. Steve Pueppke
The members of the Evaluation Committee

Dear Colleagues,

The Water Editorial Board and Editorial Team would like to gratefully acknowledge the time and energy given by reviewers in assessing the manuscripts submitted to the journal. With their great support, high scientific quality and quick turnaround of the Water journal are maintained.

Here, we are pleased to announce the winners of Outstanding Reviewer Awards 2019:

A certificate with 500 Swiss Francs (CHF)

Prof. Dr. Katarzyna Pietrucha-Urbanik
Rzeszow University of Technology, Poland

Dr. Angela Gorgoglione
Universidad de la República, Italy

Prof. Dr. Steven G. Pueppke
Michigan State University, USA

Dr. Roman Gabl
The University of Edinburgh Max Born Crescent, UK

Dr. Pankaj Kumar
Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, Japan

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce that the Water Travel Awards for 2019 were granted to the following three excellent applicants:

Ms. Parisa Hosseinzadehtalaei, Ph.D. researcher in KU Leuven; Dr. Ebrahim Ahmadisharaf, Postdoctoral Associate at Virginia Tech; and Dr. Komali Kantamaneni, researcher at Solent University. Each awardee will receive 800 Swiss Francs to attend an international conference in 2019.

Ms. Parisa Hosseinzadehtalaei will present her work entitled “Future Changes in European Pluvial Flooding under Climatic and Non-Climatic Factors” at the 38th IAHR (International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research) World Congress, which will be held on 1–6 September 2019 in Panama City, Panama.

Dr. Ebrahim Ahmadisharaf will present his work entitled “Using the Enhanced Expert System for HSPF (HSPEXP+) to Implement Generalized Likelihood Uncertainty Estimation (GLUE) for TMDL Uncertainty Analysis” at the 2019 World Environmental and Water Resources Congress, which will be held on 19–23 May 2019 in Pittsburgh, PA, USA.

Dr. Komali Kantamaneni will present her work entitled “Proposed Topic: Coastal Water Vulnerability in Andhra Pradesh, India” at WRE 2019 (The 5th International Conference on Water Resource and Environment), to be held on 16–19 July 2019 in Macao, China.

The evaluation process is very difficult, as there are abundant excellent applications for the awards. We would like to thank all the applicants for their participation and all the Award Committee members for their time devoted to evaluation. On behalf of Water, we congratulate the winners for their accomplishments.

Prof. Arjen Y. Hoekstra
Chair of the Evaluation Committee

Prof. Y. Jun Xu
Prof. Athanasios Loukas
Prof. Adriano A. Bordalo
Prof. Helena Margarida Ramos
Dr. Kevin B. Strychar
The members of the Evaluation Committee

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce that the winner of the 2019 Water Young Investigator Award is Dr. Kyle Davis.

Dr. Kyle Davis is a Data Science Institute Fellow at Columbia University whose work focuses on food systems, water sustainability, and global environmental change. His current research in India, Nigeria, China, and the US combines environmental, economic, and social considerations with direct stakeholder engagement to inform agricultural decision making and to improve nutrition, environmental sustainability, and climate adaptation strategies. He also explores other human–environment interactions through projects on: the environmental and livelihood impacts of large-scale land investments; variability and shock propagation through food trade networks; human migration modelling as driven by anticipated climate change impacts; and farmer coping strategies for climate variability and extremes. He is humbled and honored to be chosen as this year’s recipient. Please join us in congratulating Dr. Kyle Davis for his outstanding achievements.

As the awardee, Dr. Davis will receive an honorarium of 2000 CHF, an offer to publish a paper free-of-charge without a fixed deadline in Water, and an engraved plaque.

We would like to thank all the applicants in various fields of study for their participation and all the Award Committee members for their evaluation of the many excellent applications.

The 2020 Water Young Investigator Award will be open from September 2019. Please check https://www.mdpi.com/journal/water/awards for more information closer to that date.

Dear Colleagues,

The Water Editorial Board and Editorial Team would like to gratefully acknowledge the time and energy given by reviewers in assessing the manuscripts submitted to the journal. With their great support, high scientific quality and quick turnaround of the Water journal are maintained.

Here, we are pleased to announce the winners of Outstanding Reviewer Awards 2018:

Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of the evaluation committee, I am pleased to announce that the Water Travel Awards for 2018 were granted to the following applicants:

Dr. R. Iestyn Woolway, Post-Doctoral Research Assistant in Climatology at the Department of Meteorology, University of Reading, UK; Dr. Xueming Chen, Post-Doctoral Researcher from the Process and Systems Engineering Center, Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark; and Dr. Yi Yang, Postdoctoral Associate at The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, USA. Each awardee will receive 800 Swiss Francs to attend an international conference in 2018.

Dr. R. Iestyn Woolway will present his work entitled “Intra-Lake Heterogeneity of Thermal Responses to Climate Change: A Study of Large Northern Hemisphere Lakes” at the SIL (International Society of Limnology) Congress, which will be held on 19–24 August 2018 in Nanjing, China.

Dr. Xueming Chen will present the paper entitled “Further Investigation into the Roles of Dissolved Oxygen and Nitrite Accumulation inside Sludge Flocs in N2O Production” at the IWA World Water Congress & Exhibition 2018, which will be held on 16–21 September 2018 in Tokyo, Japan.

Dr. Yi Yang will present her work “Oxidation of Organic Contaminants by Unactivated Peroxymonosulfate: Roles of Reactive Species and Direct Oxidation” at the 256th ACS National Meeting & Expo—Nanoscience, Nanotechnology, & Beyond, to be held on 19–23 August, 2018 in Boston, MA, USA.

It was a very difficult decision with such high-quality applications for the awards, and we would like to thank all the applicants in various fields of study for their participation and all the Award Committee members for their evaluations of the abundant excellent applications. On behalf of the assessment committee, I congratulate the winners for their accomplishments.

Prof. Arjen Y. Hoekstra
Chair of the Evaluation Committee

Dear Colleagues,
We are pleased to announce that the winner of the 2018 Water Young Investigator Award is Dr. Qilin Wang.

Dr. Qilin Wang is an Australian Research Council (ARC) DECRA Research Fellow and Lecturer (Assistant Professor) at the Centre for Clean Environment and Energy, Environmental Futures Research Institute; Griffith School of Engineering, Griffith University, Australia, and the Honorary Research Fellow at Advanced Water Management Centre, The University of Queensland. Dr. Wang’s expertise focus on innovative technologies for urban water/wastewater management, biological wastewater treatment and its mathematical modelling, resource and energy recovery from wastewater, carbon neutral wastewater treatment, anaerobic and aerobic sludge digestion, greenhouse gas production and emission, and microbiological endogenous processes in the wastewater treatment system. He has published 96 publications, including 81 fully refereed journal papers, and he is Principal Investigator (PI) or Co-PI of seven competitive grants with a total research funding of ~$AUD 3.6 Million from Australian Government, Queensland Government, Industry and University. Please join us in congratulating Dr. Qinlin Wang for his outstanding achievements.

As the awardee, Dr. Wang will receive an honorarium of 2000 CHF, an offer to publish a paper free of charge without a fixed deadline in Water, and an engraved plaque.

We would like to thank all the applicants in various fields of study for their participation and all the Award Committee members for their evaluation of the abundant excellent applications.

The competition for the 2019 Water Young Investigator Award will be open from September 2018. Please check https://www.mdpi.com/journal/water/awards for more information closer to that date.

Dear Colleagues,

The Water Editorial Board and Editorial Team would like to gratefully acknowledge the time and energy given by reviewers in assessing the manuscripts submitted to the journal. With their great support, many interesting papers of high quality have been published in Water and quick peer review process is maintained.

The following five referees have been selected by the Editor-in-Chief of Water, Prof. Arjen Y. Hoekstra, to be awarded “Water 2017 Outstanding Reviewers” for the quantity, timeliness and quality of their reviews in 2017. Each of them will receive 500 CHF and a certificate for their outstanding review work:

• Giuseppe Oliveto, University of Basilicata, Italy
• Sally Logsdon, National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment, IA, USA
• Antonio Manuel Herrera Fernandez, University of Bath, UK
• Francesco Aristodemo, Università della Calabria, Italy
• Haw Yen, Texas A&M University, TX, USA

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce that the winner of 2017 Water Young Investigator Award is Dr. Gabriele Villarini.

Dr. Gabriele Villarini is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Iowa, and the Associate Director of IIHR-Hydroscience & Engineering. Dr. Villarini’s work has been instrumental in changing the way the scientific community uses and validates remote sensing products. He has introduced useful concepts and applications of scaling properties of hydrological fields and examined many aspects of time series of floods and extreme rainfall. Please join us in congratulating Dr. Gabriele Villarini for a well-deserved prize.

As the awardee, Dr. Villarini will receive an honorarium of 2000 CHF, an offer to publish a paper free of charge without a fixed deadline in Water, and an engraved plaque.

We would like to thank all the Award Committee members for their assiduous evaluation of the candidates and all the applicants for submitting their fascinating and diverse range of research topics.

The competition for 2018 Water Young Investigator Award will be open from September 2017. Please check http:// www.mdpi.com/journal/water for more information closer to that date.