Dear Colleagues,

As Editor-in-Chief of Microorganisms, I am pleased to announce the winner of the Microorganisms 2024 Travel Award. The award has been granted to Dr. Ruairi Robertson, a post-doctoral research fellow at the Institut Pasteur, France.

As the awardee, he will receive an honorarium of CHF 800 and an electronic certificate.

The evaluation process and final decision were challenging with so many high-quality applicants. 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 congratulate the winner on their accomplishments.

Editor-in-Chief Nico Jehmlich,
on behalf of the Microorganisms 2024 Travel Award Evaluation Committee

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce the winners of the Microorganisms 2023 Outstanding Reviewer Award. The Microorganisms Editorial Board and Editorial Team would like to gratefully acknowledge the time and energy dedicated by reviewers in checking the manuscripts submitted to Microorganisms. It is due to their efforts that the high quality of the journal and quick turnaround are maintained.

Dr. Ibrahim Mahmoud Sayed
Department of Biomedical & Nutritional Sciences, Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts-Lowell, Lowell, MA, USA
Research Interests: viral hepatitis; new emerging pathogen; acute hepatitis of unknown etiology; pathogenesis; animal model

Dr. Isabella Grishkan
Institute of Evolution, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
Research Interests: soil mycology; soil microfungi; species composition; structure of communities and populations; mycobiota

Dr. Sunghyun Yoon
National Center for Toxicological Research, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Jefferson, AR, USA
Research Interests: antimicrobial resistance; whole genome sequencing; virulence factors; Staphylococcus aureus; Salmonella; veterinary microbiology

The Prize for Each Winner:
– CHF 500;
– An opportunity to publish a paper free of charge in Microorganisms in 2024 after peer review;
– A certificate.

Kind regards,
Microorganisms Editorial Office

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce that the winners of the Microorganisms 2023 Young Investigator Award are Dr. Eleonora Cella, Dr. Joana Vanessa Cordeiro Melro Mourão, and Dr. Ruairi Robertson.

Dr. Eleonora Cella is a Post-Doctoral Fellow of the Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, USA. Dr. Cella’s research interests are in molecular epidemiology and evolution of
human viruses and bacteria, clinical–epidemiological correlations in human viruses and bacteria, development of new bioinformatics tools for the study of human/host microbial genes, next-generation sequencing, metagenomics, phylodynamics, molecular epidemiology, genomic monitoring of emerging and re-emerging microbial pathogens.

Dr. Joana Vanessa Cordeiro Melro Mourão is a Junior Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Center for Innovative Biomedicine and Biotechnology at the University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal, and a Researcher at the Department of Biological Science at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal. Dr. Mourão’s research interests are in antibiotic resistance, metals and biocide tolerance, food safety, food microbiology, foodborne bacterial pathogens, bacterial epidemiology, microbiology, mobile genetic elements, and genome evolution among Enterobacteriaceae, typing, bioinformatics, biostatistics, computational biology, data science, data mining, cutting-edge high-throughput methodologies, and machine learning.

Dr. Ruairi Robertson is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Department of Immunology at Institut Pasteur, Paris, France. Dr. Robertson’s research interests include host and nutrient interactions with the developing gut
microbiota in basic and clinical research.

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Eleonora Cella, Dr. Joana Vanessa Cordeiro Melro Mourão, and Dr. Ruairi Robertson for their outstanding achievements.

As the awardees, they will receive an honorarium of CHF 1000, an offer to publish a paper free of charge before 31 December 2024 in Microorganisms 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 evaluating the many excellent nominations.

Microorganisms 2023 Young Investigator Evaluation Committee

Dear Colleagues,

As Section Editor-in-Chief of Microorganisms, I am pleased to announce the winner of the Microorganisms 2023 Travel Award. The award has been granted to Dr. Valentina Puca , a PhD student at Department of Pharmacy, “University “G. d’Annunzio” Chieti-Pescara, Italy. Her research focuses on Microbiology and Medical Microbiology.

As the awardee, she will receive an honorarium of CHF 800, and an electronic certificate.

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 the assessment committee, I congratulate the winner on her accomplishments.

Dr. Nico Jehmlich
Section Editor-in-Chief, Microorganisms

Dear Colleagues,

The editorial team would like to congratulate the winners of the Microorganisms 2022 Best Paper Award, who were chosen by a selection committee chaired by the Editor-in-Chief, Prof. Dr. Grzegorz Wegrzyn. Following the review process carried out by the Award Evaluation Committee, four winners have been selected.

Article:
The First Prize: CHF 300 plus the opportunity to publish a paper free of charge in 2024 after peer review.
Endophytic PGPR from Tomato Roots: Isolation, In Vitro Characterization and In Vivo Evaluation of Treated Tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum L.)
By Bastien Cochard, Basile Giroud, Julien Crovadore, Romain Chablais, Lucas Arminjon and François Lefort
Microorganisms 2022, 10(4), 765; doi:10.3390/microorganisms10040765

The Second Prize: CHF 200 plus the opportunity to publish a paper free of charge in 2024 after peer review.
Diversity of Blastocystis Subtypes in Horses in Colombia and Identification of Two New Subtypes
By Sohyeong Baek, Jenny G. Maloney, Aleksey Molokin, Nadja S. George, Jesús A. Cortés Vecino and Monica Santin
Microorganisms 2022, 10(9), 1693; doi:10.3390/microorganisms10091693

Review:
The First Prize: CHF 300 plus the opportunity to publish a paper free of charge in 2024 after peer review.
Targeting the Holy Triangle of Quorum Sensing, Biofilm Formation, and Antibiotic Resistance in Pathogenic Bacteria
By Ronit Vogt Sionov and Doron Steinberg
Microorganisms 2022, 10(6), 1239; doi:10.3390/microorganisms10061239

The Second Prize: CHF 200 plus the opportunity to publish a paper free of charge in 2024 after peer review.
Phylum Gemmatimonadota and Its Role in the Environment
By Izabela Mujakić, Kasia Piwosz and Michal Koblížek
Microorganisms 2022, 10(1), 151; doi:10.3390/microorganisms10010151

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

Kind regards,
Microorganisms Editorial Office

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

Dear Colleagues,

The editorial team would like to congratulate the winners of the Microorganisms 2021 Best Paper Award, who were chosen by a selection committee chaired by the Editor-in-Chief, Prof. Dr. Grzegorz Węgrzyn. Following a review process by the Award Evaluation Committee, four winners were selected.

Article:
The First Prize: CHF 300 plus the opportunity to publish a paper free of charge after peer review.
Wide Genetic Diversity of Blastocystis in White-Tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) from Maryland, USA
By Jenny G. Maloney, Yunah Jang, Aleksey Molokin, Nadja S. George and Monica Santin
Microorganisms 2021, 9(6), 1343; doi:10.3390/microorganisms9061343

The Second Prize: CHF 200 plus the opportunity to publish a paper free of charge after peer review.
Implementing SARS-CoV-2 Rapid Antigen Testing in the Emergency Ward of a Swiss University Hospital: The INCREASE Study
By Giorgia Caruana, Antony Croxatto, Eleftheria Kampouri, Antonios Kritikos, Onya Opota, Maryline Foerster, René Brouillet, Laurence Senn, Reto Lienhard, Adrian Egli, Giuseppe Pantaleo, Pierre-Nicolas Carron and Gilbert Greub
Microorganisms 2021, 9(4), 798; doi:10.3390/microorganisms9040798

Review:

The First Prize: CHF 300 plus the opportunity to publish a paper free of charge after peer review.
The Many Faces of Enterococcus spp.—Commensal, Probiotic and Opportunistic Pathogen
By Beata Krawczyk, Paweł Wityk, Mirosława Gałęcka and Michał Michalik
Microorganisms 2021, 9(9), 1900; doi:10.3390/microorganisms9091900

The Second Prize: CHF 200 plus the opportunity to publish a paper free of charge after peer review.
Towards Advances in Medicinal Plant Antimicrobial Activity: A Review Study on Challenges and Future Perspectives
By Natalia Vaou, Elisavet Stavropoulou, Chrysa Voidarou, Christina Tsigalou and Eugenia Bezirtzoglou
Microorganisms 2021, 9(10), 2041; 10.3390/microorganisms9102041

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

Kind regards,
Microorganisms Editorial Office

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce the winner of the Microorganisms 2021 Travel Award. The Evaluation Committee were very impressed with the high level of work presented, and, after careful consideration, the Travel Award has been granted to Francis Muchaamba, a Ph.D. student at University of Zurich, Switzerland.

As the awardee, Francis Muchaamba will receive an honorarium of 800 Swiss Francs to support her attendance and participation at FoodMicro 2021.

We would like to thank all applicants for their participation and interest in our journal. We also would like to express our gratitude all Evaluation Committee members for their comprehensive evaluation of the candidates.

Microorganisms (ISSN 2076-2607, Impact Factor 4.152) is a scientific, peerreviewed, open access microbiology journal published monthly online by MDPI. It is indexed by Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE), PubMed, Scopus, and many other databases. Please find more information about Microorganisms at: https://0-www-mdpi-com.brum.beds.ac.uk/journal/microorganisms

Microorganisms Editorial Office
MDPI
Office: St. Alban-Anlage 66, 4052 Basel, Switzerland
E-mail: [email protected]

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce the winner of the 2019 Microorganisms Travel Award. The Evaluation Committee were very impressed with the high level of work presented, and after careful consideration, the Travel Award has been granted to Rachelle E. Beattie, a Ph.D. student at Marquette University, USA. She specializes in environmental microbiology research, with a focus on addressing the water quality needs of citizens in agriculturally contaminated regions.

As the awardee, Rachelle E. Beattie will receive an honorarium of 800 Swiss Francs to support her attendance and participation at the American Society of Microbiology Annual Meeting 2019.

It is also our pleasure to announce that as part of the reward, Microorganisms will offer the Top 5 candidates the opportunity to publish a paper with the publication fees waived. We would like to thank all applicants for their participation and interest in our journal.

We also thank our Evaluation Committee members for their comprehensive evaluation of the candidates.

Microorganisms (ISSN 2076-2607; CODEN: MICRKN) is a scientific peer-reviewed open access microbiology journal published monthly online by MDPI. It is indexed by Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE), PubMed, and many other databases. Please find more information about Microorganisms at: https://0-www-mdpi-com.brum.beds.ac.uk/journal/microorganisms

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce that the following papers were selected as the winners of the Microorganisms Best Paper Award 2018:

• Iain Dickinson, William Goodall-Copestake, Michael A.S. Thorne, Thomas Schlitt, Maria L. Ávila-Jiménez, and David A. Pearce. Extremophiles in an Antarctic Marine Ecosystem. Microorganisms, 2016, 4, 8. DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms4010008
• Aaron Lerner, Sandra Neidhöfer, and Torsten Matthias. The Gut Microbiome Feelings of the Brain: A Perspective for Non-Microbiologists. Microorganisms, 2017, 5, 66. Doi:10.3390/microorganisms5040066

The above papers were selected and confirmed by the “Best Paper Award” evaluation committee, which consisted of six members of the Microorganisms Editorial Board. The winners were determined according to the following criteria:

• Quality, novelty, and scientific soundness
• Citation and download rates

In recognition of their accomplishment, the winners will receive a certificate and an offer to publish a paper free of charge in Microorganisms, after the normal peer-review procedure.

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce the winner of the 2018 Microorganisms Travel Award.

The Travel Award has been granted to Swan Li San Sow, a Ph.D. student at the University of Tasmania, Australia. Her research focuses on the environmental factors driving microbial community composition which may help predict responses of important biogeochemical processes to future climate change.

As the awardee, Swan Li San Sow will receive an honorarium of 800 Swiss Francs to support her attendance and participation in the conference of 17th International Symposium on Microbial Ecology- ISME17 in 2018.

I would like to thank all applicants for their participation and interest in our journal.

Prof. Dr. Martin von Bergen
Editor-in-Chief