Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of the Section Editor-in-Chief, Prof. Dr. Grzegorz Wegrzyn, we wish to acknowledge our reviewers who so generously give their time to reviewing the papers submitted to Microorganisms by presenting an award to those reviewers who have demonstrated their dedication, professionalism, and timeliness in reviewing manuscripts for Microorganisms.

What are the prerequisites to be eligible for the award?
All of the reviewers for Microorganisms in 2023 will be automatically included.

Selection criteria:
– Number of review reports (only first review reports are considered);
– Review quality, based on the rating given in SuSy;
– Review speed.

What will the winners receive?
There will be three winners this year, and each will receive the following:
– CHF 500;
– Waiver of the article processing fee for a manuscript submitted to Microorganisms in 2024;
– A certificate.

When will the winners be announced?
The winners will be announced in February 2024 on the journal’s website.

How can I make myself eligible?
If you have not yet reviewed papers for Microorganisms but would like to do so, you can register as a reviewer at the following link: https://susy.mdpi.com/volunteer/profile/edit.

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce that we are now inviting nominations for the Microorganisms 2023 Young Investigator Award. This prize will be given to three young investigators in recognition of their excellence in the field of microbiology research. All nominations will be assessed by an Evaluation Committee consisting of senior scholars from the Microorganisms Editorial Board.

The Prize:
There will be three winners this year, and each will receive the following:
– CHF 1000;
– An opportunity to publish one paper free of charge in Microorganisms after peer review before the end of 2024;
– An electronic certificate.

Nomination Requirements for Candidates:
– Must have received their PhD no more than 10 years prior to 31 December 2023;
– Must have produced ground-breaking research and made a significant contribution to the advancement of microbiology;
– Must be nominated by senior scientists.

List of Documents for Nomination:
– Detailed curriculum vitae, including an updated publication list and a list of the researcher’s own research grants;
– Scanned copy of doctorate certificate;
– Signed nomination letters from two established senior scientists.

Schedule:
– Open for nominations: 20 April 2023
– Nomination deadline: 31 December 2023
– Winner announced: 31 March 2024

How to submit nominations:
Nominations must be submitted online.

Contact:
Mr. Denis Cheng
Marketing Assistant
Email: denis.cheng@mdpi.com

Kind regards,
Microorganisms Editorial Office

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce the “Microorganisms 2022 Best Paper Award” for research and review articles published in Microorganisms from 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2022. Two reviews and two research articles will receive an award each. The papers will be selected after a thorough evaluation by the journal Award Committee led by an Evaluation Committee consisting of senior scholars from the Microorganisms Editorial Board.

Eligibility for the Award:
– Papers published in Microorganisms 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 (one for a review paper and one for a research paper): CHF 300 and a chance to publish a paper free of charge after peer review in Microorganisms in 2024;
– The second prize (one for a review paper and one for a research paper): CHF 200 and a chance to publish a paper free of charge after peer review in Microorganisms in 2024;
– Each winner will also receive a certificate.

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

Kind regards,
Microorganisms Editorial Office

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce that Microorganisms will be granting the Travel Award to one junior scientist. The applications will be assessed by an Evaluation Committee consisting of senior scholars from the Microorganisms Editorial Board.

This award provides financial support for the winners to attend an international conference to be held in 2023 in the field of microbiology and to deliver a presentation, present a poster, or both.

Candidate Requirements:

• Postdoctoral fellows or PhD students.
• Plans to attend an international conference in 2023 (oral presentation or poster).

Required Application Documents:

• Information of the conference the applicant is planning to attend and the abstract that will be submitted.
• Curriculum vitae and list of publications.
• Justification letter describing the focus of the research (max. 800 words).
• Letter of recommendation from the supervisor, research director, or department head, which also confirms the applicant’s status as a postdoctoral fellow/PhD student.

The winner will be awarded CHF 800 and a certificate.

Please submit your applications for the Microorganisms 2023 Travel Award online by 30 April 2023. The prizes will be awarded at the end of May 2023 and announced on the Microorganisms website.

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://www.mdpi.com/journal/microorganisms

Microorganisms Editorial Office
MDPI
Office: St. Alban-Anlage 66, 4052 Basel, Switzerland
E-mail: microorganisms@mdpi.com

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://www.mdpi.com/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