Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce the “Coatings 2024 Best Paper Award” for research and review articles published in Coatings from 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2022. Four papers will receive an award each. The papers will be selected after a thorough evaluation by the journal Award Committee led by the Editor-in-Chief, Prof. Dr. Wei Pan.

Eligibility for the Award:
– Papers published in Coatings from 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2022;
– Open to all career levels;
– Both regular and Special Issue submissions will be considered.

Selection Criteria:
The papers will be selected by the journal 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 uniqueness of the approaches and concepts;
– Clarity of presentation;
– Citations and downloads.

Prizes:
– The first prize (two winners): CHF 600 and a chance to publish a paper free of charge in Coatings in 2024 after peer review;
– The second prize (two winners): CHF 300 and a chance to publish a paper free of charge in Coatings in 2024 after peer review;
– Each winner will also receive an electronic certificate.

The winners will be announced on the journal website in April 2024.

Kind regards,
Coatings Editorial Office

Dear Colleagues,

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

Dr. Athanasios Sfikas
Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
Research interests: aluminium alloys; metal matrix composites; high-entropy alloys; intermetallic compounds; ceramic matrix composites; coatings; thermal spray; materials characterisation; corrosion; tribology; thermal barrier coatings; rapid solidification; casting; powder metallurgy

Dr. Alexander Sobolev
Ariel University, Ariel, Israel
Research interests: plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO); micro-arc oxidation (MAO); corrosion; potentiodynamic polarization; electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS); sol–gel; colloids; ink solutions; hydroxyapatite; aluminum alloys; titanium alloys

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

Kind regards,
Coatings Editorial Office

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce that the winners of the Coatings 2023 Early Career Investigator Award are Dr. João Paulo Mendes Tribst and Dr. Giulia Masi.

Dr. João Paulo Mendes Tribst is an Assistant Professor at Academisch Centrum Tandheelkunde Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He has experience

in Dentistry, with a particular focus on Dental Materials, Dental Prosthesis, Dental Ceramics, Finite Element Analysis, Dental Implants and Traumas. Dr. João Paulo Mendes Tribst completed a sandwich doctorate at Academisch Centrum Tandheelkunde Amsterdam from 2018 to 2019.

Dr. Giulia Masi is an Assistant professor in the Department of Civil, Chemical, Environmental and Materials Engineering, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy. Her research interests include alkali-activated materials, ceramics, construction materials, corrosion, cultural heritage and durability. Dr. Giulia Masi received her PhD in 2017 and worked on the EU M-ERA.net project B-IMPACT (2015-2017) and the RAPCON project, funded by CARIPLO Fundation (2020-2023).

As the awardees, Dr. João Paulo Mendes Tribst and Dr. Giulia Masi will each receive an honorarium of CHF 2000, an option to publish a paper free of charge in Coatings 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.

Kind regards,
Coatings Editorial Office

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce the winners of the Coatings 2023 Best Paper Award. All papers published from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2021 in Coatings were considered. After a thorough evaluation of the originality and significance of the papers, citations, and downloads, two winners were selected.

One Review:

Structure and Applications of Pectin in Food, Biomedical, and Pharmaceutical Industry: A Review
By Cariny Maria Polesca Freitas, Jane Sélia Reis Coimbra, Victor Gomes Lauriano Souza and Rita Cássia Superbi Sousa
Coatings 2021, 11(8), 922; doi:10.3390/coatings11080922

One Article:

Fabrication of Thermal Plasma Sprayed NiTi Coatings Possessing Functional Properties
By Sneha Samal, Ondřej Tyc, Jan Cizek, Jakub Klecka, František Lukáč, Orsolya Molnárová, Esther de Prado, Zdeněk Weiss, Jaromír Kopeček, Luděk Heller, Petr Šittner and Tomáš Chráska
Coatings 2021, 11(5), 610; doi:10.3390/coatings11050610

Each winner will receive CHF 500 and a chance to publish a paper free of charge in Coatings in 2023 after peer review.

Please join us in congratulating the winners of Coatings 2023 Best Paper Award. We also thank all our authors for your continued support of Coatings.

Kind regards,
Coatings Editorial Office

Dear Colleagues,

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

Dr. Anca Mazare
Department of Materials Science, Friedrich-Alexander University, Erlangen, Germany
Advanced Institute for Materials Research (AIMR), National University Corporation Tohoku University (TU), Sendai, Japan
Research Interests: nanomaterials; nanostructuring; nanomanufacturing; biomaterials; functional biomaterials; semiconductors; photocatalysis; electrocatalysis; X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy; surface anaylsis techniques; single atom

Prof. Dr. Costica Bejinariu
Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering, Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iasi, Iași, Romania
Research Interests: materials engineering; thin layers; automotive materials; corrosion resistance

The Prize for Each Winner:
– CHF 500;
– An opportunity to publish a paper free of charge in Coatings in 2023 after peer review;
– A certificate.

Kind regards,
Dr. Alessandro Lavacchi
Editor-in-Chief, Coatings

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce the winners of the Coatings 2022 Best Paper Award. All papers published in 2020 in Coatings were considered for the award. After a thorough evaluation of the originality and significance of the papers, citations, and downloads, two winners were selected. The papers were selected after thorough evaluation by the journal Award Committee led by the EiCs, Dr. Alessandro Lavacchi and Prof. Dr. Wei Pan.

One review:
Introduction to Plasma Electrolytic Oxidation—An Overview of the Process and Applications
By Frank Simchen, Maximilian Sieber, Alexander Kopp and Thomas Lampke.
Coatings 2020, 10(7), 628; https://doi.org/10.3390/coatings10070628

One article:
First Insights into Photocatalytic Degradation of HDPE and LDPE Microplastics by a Mesoporous N–TiO2 Coating: Effect of Size and Shape of Microplastics
by Brenda Estefanía Llorente-García, Juan Manuel Hernández-López, Antonio Alberto Zaldívar-Cadena, Cristina Siligardi, and Erika Iveth Cedillo-González
Coatings 2020, 10(7), 658; https://doi.org/10.3390/coatings10070658

Each winner (corresponding author) will receive CHF 500 and a chance to publish a paper in Coatings in 2023 free of charge after peer review.

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

Kind regards,
Coatings Editorial Office

Dear Colleagues,

As the Editor-in-Chief of Coatings, it is my great pleasure to announce the winner of the Coatings 2021 Best PhD Thesis Award. This prize was aimed to be granted to a PhD student or a doctor who has produced a highly anticipated academic potential thesis.

The award has been granted to the following:
Biomaterial Strategies to Promote Hemidesmosome Formation on Percutaneous Devices
By Dr. Nicholas Fischer
Minnesota Dental Research Center for Biomaterials and Biomechanics, School of Dentistry, University of Minnesota, 16-212 Delaware St. SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA

The winner will receive a bonus of CHF 500, a certificate, and a chance to publish a paper with the article processing charge (APC) waived in Coatings in 2022.

On behalf of the Assessment Committee, I would like to congratulate the winner on his accomplishments. We would also like to take this opportunity to thank all the nominated research groups of the above, exceptional thesis for their contributions to Coatings and the Award Committee for voting and helping with this award.

Dr. Alessandro Lavacchi
Editor-in-Chief, Coatings

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce the winners of the Coatings 2021 Outstanding Reviewer Award.

The Coatings Editorial Board and Editorial Team would like to gratefully acknowledge the time and energy dedicated by the reviewers of manuscripts submitted to Coatings. It is due to their efforts that the high quality of the journal and quick turnaround is maintained.

The following reviewers will be awarded the prize on the basis of the quantity, timeliness, and quality of their reviews in 2021. They will each receive CHF 500, an opportunity to publish a paper free of charge in Coatings in 2022, and a certificate acknowledging their outstanding review work:

Prof. Dr. Catalin Pruncu
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Imperial College London, London, UK

Dr. Valentina Marascu
1. National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, 077125 Magurele, Romania
2. Université Paris-Saclay, CEA, INRAE, DMTS, SCBM, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France

Kind regards,

Prof. Dr. Wei Pan
Editor-in-Chief, Coatings

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce the winners of the “Coatings 2021 Best Cover Award”. The winners (corresponding author) will receive a bonus of CHF 500.

Issue 1 (January 1, 2021)

Surface Active Ionic Liquids Based Coatings as Subaerial Anti-Biofilms for Stone Built Cultural Heritage (doi:10.3390/coatings11010026)

Filomena De Leo, Alessia Marchetta, Gioele Capillo, Antonino Germanà, Patrizia Primerano, Sandra L. Schiavo, and Clara Urzì.

We would like to congratulate the winners on their accomplishments and all the nominees for their participation.

Coatings Editorial Office

Dear Colleagues,

As the editor-in-chief of Coatings, I am pleased to announce the winners of the Coatings 2021 Best Paper Awards.

The awards have been granted to:

1. State of the Art in Directed Energy Deposition: From Additive Manufacturing to Materials Design
   Adrita Dass at al.
   Coatings 2019, 9(7), 418; doi:10.3390/coatings9070418
2. Encapsulation of Organic and Perovskite Solar Cells: A Review
   Ashraf Uddin et al.
   Coatings 2019, 9(2), 65; doi:10.3390/coatings9020065
3. Poly (Lactic Acid)/Thermoplastic Starch Films: Effect of Cardoon Seed Epoxidized Oil on Their Chemicophysical, Mechanical, and Barrier Properties
   Rosa Turco et al.
   Coatings 2019, 9(9), 574; doi:10.3390/coatings9090574
4. Physical and Morphological Characterization of Chitosan/Montmorillonite Films Incorporated with Ginger Essential Oil
   Victor Gomes Lauriano Souza et al.
   Coatings 2019, 9(11), 700; doi:10.3390/coatings9110700
5. Application and Evaluation of a Pectin-Based Edible Coating Process for Quality Change Kinetics and Shelf-Life Extension of Lime Fruit (Citrus aurantifolium)
   Neda Maftoonazad et al.
   Coatings 2019, 9(5), 285; doi:10.3390/coatings9050285

Each winner (corresponding author) will receive a certificate and the opportunity to publish a paper free of charge in Coatings.

On behalf of the assessment committee, I congratulate the winners on their accomplishments. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the nominated research groups of the above exceptional papers for their contributions to Coatings, and thank the Award Committee for voting and helping with these awards.

Editor-in-Chief
Prof. Dr. Wei Pan, Coatings

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce the winners of the Coatings 2021 Guest Editor Awards.

Dr. Philippe Evon
Laboratoire de Chimie Agro-industrielle (LCA), Université de Toulouse, INRA, Toulouse INP, Toulouse, France

Dr. Evon is very active in MDPI journals and serves as Guest Editor for Coatings and Processes, and he is also a member of Coatings Editorial Board. His Special Issue “Natural Fiber Based Composites” is one of the most successful SI for Coatings, which collected 22 papers from authors across 17 countries.

Prof. Dr. Ioannis Karapanagiotis
University Ecclesiastical Academy of Thessaloniki, N. Plastira 65, 542 50 Thessaloniki, Greece

He has led three successful Special Issues in Coatings since 2018. He also works on the Editorial Board of Coatings, and is the session chair for conference CIC2021 (an online conference held by Coatings)—Session 5 “Coatings and Interfaces in Cultural Heritage Preservation and Restauration”.

Each winner will receive an honorarium of 1000 CHF, and an offer to publish a paper free of charge without a fixed deadline in Coatings after peer-review.

On behalf of the Award Committee, I congratulate the winners on their accomplishments. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the guest editors for their contributions to Coatings, and thank the Award Committee for voting and helping with these awards.

Dr. Alessandro Lavacchi
Editor-in-Chief, Coatings

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce that the winner of the 2021 Coatings Young Investigator Award is Dr. Marta Mohedano.

The selection committee is chaired by the Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Alessandro Lavacchi, and supported by Dr. Ramon Escobar Galindo, Prof. Dr. Stefano Farris, Dr. Pascal Briois, Dr. Daniel E. Mack, and PD Dr. Thilo Glatzel.

Dr. Marta Mohedano completed her Ph.D. in Materials Science and Technology (Extraordinary Award) from Complutense University of Madrid-UCM (Spain) in 2011. She is very active in scientific organizations and currently, she is the Chair of the Young EFC (European Federation of Corrosion), the Chair of the EFC Equity Task Force, the EFC Social Media Manager, the Chair of the Task Force Corrosion and Protection, and Board Member in the Spanish Society of Materials (SOCIEMAT). Her research interests lie in the tailoring of surfaces of light alloys (Mg, Al, and Ti) and detailed corrosion studies in different environments for transport and biomaterials applications. Dr. Mohedano has contributed to the field of corrosion and protection of light alloys with a total of 80 publications with >2400 citations and h-index = 31 (Scopus), more than 50 communications to national/international conferences, participation in 13 research projects, 14 technology transfer contracts, and 1 utility model. Please join us in congratulating Dr. Marta Mohedano on receiving this award and for her outstanding achievements.

As the awardee, Dr. Marta Mohedano will receive an honorarium of 2000 CHF; rapid, open access publication free of charge in Coatings after peer review in 2021; and an engraved plaque.

Together with the Coatings editorial team, I would like to congratulate Dr. Marta Mohedano for her achievements and thank the award committee for their excellent work in the hard task of selecting a winner from such a large number of excellent candidate profiles. We would also like to thank all the nominees from various fields of study for their participation and we will continue to reward young scientists with the 2021 Young Investigator Award and wish them further success in their careers.

Dr. Alessandro Lavacchi
Editor-in-Chief, Coatings

Dear Colleagues,

As Editor-in-Chief of Coatings, I am pleased to announce the winners of the Coatings Travel Awards for 2020.

The awards have been granted to: Dr. Federico Bella, an Assistant Professor at Politecnico di Torino, Italy; and Dr. Fabio Ferreira, a postdoctoral researcher in the Centro de Engenharia Mecânica da Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal.

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 winners on their accomplishments.

Prof. Dr. Wei Pan
Editor-in-Chief, Coatings

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce the 5 winners of the Coatings Best Paper Award 2019, sponsored by MDPI and Coatings.

Nominations were selected from the papers published in 2018 by the Editorial Office of Coatings. The selection committee is chaired by the Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Alessandro Lavacchi. We hope this award will encourage the publication of other high-quality papers in the journal in the future.

Original Research Article Award:

Cavitation Erosion Resistance and Wear Mechanism Model of Flame-Sprayed Al₂O₃-40%TiO₂/NiMoAl Cermet Coatings
Mirosław Szala and Tadeusz Hejwowski
Coatings 2018, 8(7), 254; doi:10.3390/coatings8070254
Available Online: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-6412/8/7/254

Combination of Electrodeposition and Transfer Processes for Flexible Thin-Film Thermoelectric Generators
Hiroki Yamamuro, Naoki Hatsuta, Makoto Wachi, Yoshihiro Takei and Masayuki Takashiri
Coatings 2018, 8(1), 22; doi:10.3390/coatings8010022
Available Online: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-6412/8/1/22

Damping Oriented Design of Thin-Walled Mechanical Components by Means of Multi-Layer Coating Technology
Giuseppe Catania and Matteo Strozzi
Coatings 2018, 8(2), 73; doi:10.3390/coatings8020073
Available Online: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-6412/8/2/73

Review Paper Award:

Porous Zinc Oxide Thin Films: Synthesis Approaches and Applications
Marco Laurenti and Valentina Cauda
Coatings 2018, 8(2), 67; doi:10.3390/coatings8020067
Available Online: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-6412/8/2/67

Sputtering PVD Coatings: A Critical Review on Technique Progress and Market Demand
Andresa Baptista, Francisco Silva, Jacobo Porteiro, José Míguez and Gustavo Pinto
Coatings 2018, 8(11), 402; doi:10.3390/coatings8110402
Available Online: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-6412/8/11/402

On behalf of the Prize Awarding Committee and the Editorial Board, we would like to congratulate the authors of the above manuscripts and thank Dr. Alessandro Lavacchi for his excellent work in the hard task of selecting a winner from such a large number of excellent candidate profiles. As a reward, each winning group can publish a paper free of charge in Coatings, after the normal peer-review procedure. We are very proud to publish high-quality papers; we will continue to hold the Best Paper Award 2020 and wish all scholars greater success in their careers.

Thank you very much for your valuable contribution to the journal and we are looking forward to further collaborating with you.

Coatings Editorial Office

Congratulations!

Dear Colleagues,

The Coatings 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 Coatings, and a quick peer review process is maintained. In order to acknowledge our reviewers, the editorial team has dedicated an award to reviewers in gratitude for their exceptional dedication in reviewing manuscripts for Coatings.

The following three referees will be awarded the “Coatings 2019 Outstanding Reviewers” prize on the basis of the quantity, timeliness, and quality of their reviews in 2019. Each of them will receive 500 CHF and a certificate for their outstanding review work. We are very pleased to acknowledge the following referees:

Leszek Łatka
Wrocław University of Science and Technology, Poland;

Hannes Rijckaert
Ghent University, Belgium;

Andrey V. Bondarev
Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic.

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce the two winners of the 2019 Young Investigator Award, sponsored by MDPI and Coatings.

The selection committee is chaired by the Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Alessandro Lavacchi, and supported by Prof. Dr. Andriy Voronov, Prof. Dr. Maria Cristina Tanzi, Prof. Dr. Dennis Douroumis, Prof. Dr. Vincenza Crupi, and Prof. Dr. Hadj Benkreira.

• 1st Prize: Dr. Federico Bella

Dr. Bella is an Assistant Professor at Politecnico di Torino, Italy. He has an extremely strong track record, and exemplary references and publications. Dr. Federico Bella has carried out ground-breaking research in nanotechnologies for energy production, storage, and related materials and has thereby made a significant contribution to the advancement of an important area in the field of coatings.

As the awardee, Dr. Federico Bella will receive an honorarium of 2000 CHF; rapid, open-access publication free of charge in Coatings; and an engraved plaque.

• 2nd Prize: Dr. Kelsey Stoerzinger

Dr. Stoerzinger is an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at Oregon State University, OR, USA. Dr. Stoerzinger’s track record of achievements is impressive for a young investigator at this stage of her career. So far, she has published more than 52 papers and has delivered over 28 invited presentations.

Based on her significant contribution to the advancement of physical deposition techniques in the field of coatings, we would like to specially reward her the 2nd prize, which includes an honorarium of 1000 CHF and a rapid, open-access publication free of charge in Coatings.

I would also like to acknowledge the other three candidates on our short list, namely, Dr. Joanna Kujawa from the Nicolaus Copernicus University, Poland; Dr. Emerson Coy from Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland; and Dr. Ludmilla Steier from Imperial College London, UK, for their impressive track records.

Together with the Coatings editorial team, I would like to congratulate Federico Bella and Kelsey Stoerzinger for their achievements and thank the award committee for their excellent work in the hard task of selecting a winner from such a large number of excellent candidate profiles. We will continue to reward young scientists with the 2020 Young Investigator Award and wish them further success in their careers.

Dr. Alessandro Lavacchi

Editor-in-Chief, Coatings

Coatings established the Best Paper Award to recognize its best published articles each year. The prize started in 2015 and since 2016 it has been awarded in two categories: Best Original Research Article and Best Review Paper.

Nominations were selected by the Editorial Office of Coatings among the Papers published in 2017. The selection committee is chaired by the Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Alessandro Lavacchi, and supported by Prof. Dr. Massimo Innocenti, Prof. Dr. Steve Bull, Prof. Dr. Philippe Dubois and Dr. Michele Fedel. They examined each paper and have expressed their preferences in the ranking of the “Coatings Best Paper Award 2018”.

Original Research Article Award:
1st Prize
Development of YSZ Thermal Barrier Coatings Using Axial Suspension Plasma Spraying
Dapeng Zhou, Olivier Guillon and Robert Vaßen
Coatings 2017, 7(8), 120; doi:10.3390/coatings7080120
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-6412/7/8/120

2nd Prize
Antireflection Coatings for Strongly Curved Glass Lenses by Atomic Layer Deposition
Kristin Pfeiffer, Ulrike Schulz, Andreas Tünnermann and Adriana Szeghalmi
Coatings 2017, 7(8), 118; doi:10.3390/coatings7080118
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-6412/7/8/118

3rd Prize
Defect-Free Large-Area (25 cm²) Light Absorbing Perovskite Thin Films Made by Spray Coating
Mehran Habibi, Amin Rahimzadeh, Inas Bennouna and Morteza Eslamian
Coatings 2017, 7(3), 42; doi:10.3390/coatings7030042
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-6412/7/3/42

Review Paper Award:
A Guide to and Review of the Use of Multiwavelength Raman Spectroscopy for Characterizing Defective Aromatic Carbon Solids: from Graphene to Amorphous Carbons
Alexandre Merlen, Josephus Gerardus Buijnsters and Cedric Pardanaud
Coatings 2017, 7(10), 153; doi:10.3390/coatings7100153
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-6412/7/10/153

These four outstanding papers are valuable contributions to Coatings. On behalf of the Prize Awarding Committee and the Editorial Board, we would like to congratulate these four teams for their excellent work. In recognition of their accomplishment, Dr. Dapeng Zhou, Dr. Olivier Guillon, Dr. Robert Vaßen, Dr. Ulrike Schulz, Dr. Andreas Tünnermann, Dr. Adriana Szeghalmi, Dr. Morteza Eslamian, Dr. Alexandre Merlen, Dr. Josephus Gerardus Buijnsters and Dr. Cedric Pardanaud will benefit from the publication of an additional paper free of charge in open access format in Coatings after the usual peer-review procedure.

Dear Colleagues,

The Coatings 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 Coatings, and a quick peer review process is maintained.

The following three referees have been selected by the Editor-in-Chief of Coatings, Dr. Alessandro Lavacchi, to be awarded the “Coatings 2017 Outstanding Reviewers” prize 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. We are very pleased to acknowledge:

Luis Norberto López De Lacalle
Universidad del País Vasco UPV/EHU, Spain

Emerson Coy
Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland

Matteo Ghidelli
Università Roma Tre, Italy

Dear Colleagues,

It is a pleasure to announce the winner of the 2017 Coatings Young Investigator Award.

Among more than 70 high quality candidates, the YIA committee has selected Mikhail Kats, an Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Wisconsin (USA), for his outstanding achievements in the engineering of light–matter interaction and, particularly, in the development of optical coatings, metasurfaces, and unconventional optical materials.

The committee has also decided to recognize Dr. Ruitao Wen, Postdoctoral Associate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with a special mention due to his excellent achievements in the research of novel thin film materials for the application in electrochromic devices.

Together with the Coatings editorial team, I would like to congratulate Mikhail Kats and thank the award committee for their excellent work in the hard task of selecting a winner from such a large number of excellent candidate profiles.

Dr. Alessandro Lavacchi
Editor-in-Chief

Coatings established the Best Paper Award to recognize its best published articles each year. The prize started in 2015 and since 2016 it has been awarded in two categories:
Best Original Research Article and Best Review Paper.

Nominations were selected by the Editorial Office of Coatings among the Papers published in 2016, with a selection process based on the number of citations and the downloads from the website.

The selection committee is chaired by the Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Alessandro Lavacchi, and supported by Prof. Dr. Massimo Innocenti, Prof. Dr. Filippo Berto, Prof. Dr. Miriam Rafailovich and Prof. Dr. Pedro Neto. They examined each paper and have expressed their preferences in the ranking of the “Coatings Best Paper Award” 2017.

Original Research Article Award:
1st Prize
Development of Antibacterial Composite Films Based on Isotactic Polypropylene and Coated ZnO Particles for Active Food Packaging
Clara Silvestre, Donatella Duraccio, Antonella Marra, Valentina Strongone and Sossio Cimmino
Coatings 2016, 6(1), 4; doi:10.3390/coatings6010004
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-6412/6/1/4

2nd Prize
The Acoustical Durability of Thin Noise Reducing Asphalt Layers Cedric Vuye, Anneleen Bergiers and Barbara Vanhooreweder
Coatings 2016, 6(2), 21; doi:10.3390/coatings6020021
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-6412/6/2/21

3rd Prize
Novel Thiol-Ene Hybrid Coating for Metal Protection
Mona Taghavikish, Surya Subianto, Naba Kumar Dutta and Namita Roy Choudhury
Coatings 2016, 6(2), 17; doi:10.3390/coatings6020017
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-6412/6/2/17

Review Paper Award:
State of the Art in the Development and Properties of Protein-Based Films and Coatings and Their Applicability to Cellulose Based Products: An Extensive Review
Maria-Beatrice Coltelli, Florian Wild, Elodie Bugnicourt, Patrizia Cinelli, Martina Lindner, Markus Schmid, Verena Weckel, Kerstin Müller, Pablo Rodriguez, Andreas Staebler, Laura Rodríguez-Turienzo and Andrea Lazzeri
Coatings 2016, 6(1), 1; doi:10.3390/coatings6010001
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-6412/6/1/1

These four outstanding papers are valuable contributions to Coatings. On behalf of the Prize Awarding Committee and the Editorial Board, we would like to congratulate these four teams for their excellent work. In recognition of their accomplishment, Dr. Clara Silvestre, Dr. Cedric Vuye, Dr. Naba Kumar Dutta and Dr. Namita Roy Choudhury, Dr. Maria-Beatrice Coltelli, Dr. Florian Wild and Dr. Elodie Bugnicourt will benefit from the publication of an additional paper free of charge in open access format in Coatings after the usual peer-review procedure.

Dear Colleagues,

It is with great pleasure that I announce the winner of the 2017 Coatings Travel Award. After assessing an impressive selection of high quality applications, the prize has been awarded to Dr. Benham Akhavan of the University of Sidney in recognition of outstanding research achievements at his young age and the relevance of the results he will present at the 23rd International Symposium on Plasma Chemistry, in Canada.

Dr. Alessandro Lavacchi
Editor-in-Chief
Istituto di Chimica dei Composti OrganoMetallici (ICCOM-CNR), Firenze, Italy