Announcements

We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Masoud Soroush has been appointed Section Editor-in-Chief of the “Materials Processes” Section of Processes (ISSN: 2227-9717).

Prof. Dr. Masoud Soroush is a professor at Drexel University, USA, and the Director of the Future Layered Nanomaterials Knowledge and Engineering (FLAKE) Consortium. His research incorporates nanomaterials, polymer membranes, polymers, process systems engineering, functional safety, cyber manufacturing, and renewable power generation and storage systems. He has edited/co-edited and contributed to 8 books and has documented his work in more than 400 publications, including over 215 widely cited articles. He has a wealth of academic experience.

He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) and a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. He represented the AIChE on the American Automatic Control Council’s (AACC) Board of Directors from 2010 to 2013. His awards include the AIChE 2023 Excellence in Process Development Research Award, the AIChE 2021 Institute Award for Excellence in Industrial Gases Technology, the US National Science Foundation Faculty Early CAREER Award, and the AACC O. Hugo Schuck Best Paper Award.

The following is a short Q&A with Prof. Dr. Masoud Soroush, who shared his vision for the journal with us, as well as his views of the research area and open access publishing:

1. What appealed to you about the journal that made you want to take on the role of Section Editor-in-Chief?
I am already familiar with Processes, as I have been serving as an editor of Processes for many years. And over those years, my research interests have changed. My current research projects are now mostly in materials and manufacturing, so this position fits my trajectory.

2. What does the future of this field of research look like?
The future looks increasingly bright for materials manufacturing/processes. As for myself, my current research projects are mostly on materials for energy, sustainability, and health. These projects involve wet-lab studies including materials synthesis, characterization, and performance evaluation, as well as theoretical/computational studies including multiscale physicochemical modeling, artificial intelligence, optimization, and control. Also, in recent years, my group has performed research in the fields of functional safety and polymerization reaction engineering.

3. What is your vision for the journal?
I am glad that things are improving, and that the Impact Factor and selectivity are going up.

There are two things that I can think of as of now. For Special Issues, we need to improve the standards and selectivity. The journal has been enforcing stricter regulations and raising its standards. These increasingly stricter regulations and higher standards need to be communicated to the scientific community in a timely and explicit way.

Our focus should not be on the rejection rate; the distribution of the quality of currently submitted manuscripts seems to be broad. The important thing is to attract more high-quality manuscripts; then, the rejection rate will naturally go down. So, the golden question is—how can we attract more high-quality articles? That will lead to improved visibility and project the image of the journal as one that publishes high-quality articles and upholds publishing ethics.

4. What do you think of the development of open access in the publishing field?
Open access in the publishing field is evolving very quickly. These days, even many traditionally subscription-based journals offer open access as an option. As in every business, competition is fierce, and every aspect plays a part. In view of this, we need to focus our attention on improving the quality of the manuscripts that are submitted to this journal while monitoring and enforcing publishing ethics. So, to win the competition, we need to be continuously creative and strictly monitor and uphold publishing ethics.

We warmly welcome Prof. Dr. Masoud Soroush as the Section Editor-in-Chief of “Materials Processes” and look forward to his contribution to the continued success of the journal.