Coatings 2023 Best Paper Award (Review): Announcement and Interview with the Winning Team

The Coatings Editorial Board and Editorial Team would like to congratulate the winner of the Coatings 2023 Best Paper Award (Review). After a thorough evaluation of the originality and significance of the papers, citations, and downloads, we congratulate the paper “Structure and Applications of Pectin in Food, Biomedical, and Pharmaceutical Industry: A Review” as the winner and wish the authors all the best in their future scientific career.

• Information of the Rewarded Paper:

Title: 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

• Biographical Statement of the Winner Team:

Cariny Polesca is a PhD Student at CICECO-Aveiro Institute of Materials, University of Aveiro (UA), Portugal. She obtained her MSc in 2020 at the Federal University of Viçosa (UFV), Brazil, receiving the “Best MSc Student Award”. Currently, she works in sustainable industrial processes, emphasizing the valorization of chicken feather waste for keratin recovery using aqueous solutions of ionic liquids.

Dr. Jane Coimbra is an Assistant Professor at the Food Technology department at UFV. Her research focuses on food engineering: separation operations, phase equilibrium, and functional and technological properties applied to biological systems.

Dr. Victor Souza is a Research Fellow in Food Processing and Nutrition at the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory, in Portugal. His research focuses on materials engineering, coatings and films, food engineering and technology, and biomass production technologies.

Dr. Rita Superbi is an Assistant Professor at the Chemistry department at UFV. Her work focuses mainly on the separation and purification processes of compounds of interest (adsorption, liquid–liquid extraction, and solid–liquid extraction).

• Photo of the authors:

• Interview with the Winning Team

• What is Your Current Research and Why Did You Choose This Research Field?

Our current research is focused on sustainable industrial processes, emphasizing the valorization of wastes for high-value compounds recovery, using separation and purification processes. These compounds are used in materials engineering, for the processing of coatings and films for food engineering and biomedical applications. We have a passion for separation and purification processes, and projects that add economic value to waste while helping reduce the negative environmental impacts of improper disposal.

2. 

What Research Topics Do You Think Are of Particular Interest to the Research Community in the Coming Years?

We believe that some research topics of interest include the development of sustainable and cost-effective processes on the industrial scale, the development of cost-effective purification processes for value-added biopharmaceuticals, and the 3D printing of biological systems.

3. 

Have You Ever Encountered Any Difficulties When Conducting Research? How Did You Overcome Them?

When we have some difficulties during research, we always try to understand what the cause of the problem is and how to overcome it. We read some papers related to the topic of our research and share knowledge with our group to have a clear idea about what to do and correct what is necessary.

4. 

What Qualities Do You Think Young Scientists Need?

Critical thinking, determination, and resilience.

5. 

We Are an Open Access Journal, How Do You Think Open Access Impacts the Readers and Authors?

Open access ensures that everyone can have access to research, consequently removing barriers to science. Regarding the authors, they have the benefits of more downloads, citations, and more potential international collaborators.

6. 

Could You Please Provide Some Comments and Suggestions to Our Journal Coatings?

Regarding the journal Coatings, we strongly believe that open access is an advantage and a good way to share knowledge worldwide, which is a positive point of Coatings. Furthermore, the recognition of good papers with an award is a positive way to encourage and motivate authors to continue publishing in the journal. We also believe that promoting more options for online webinars and collaboration with conferences for Special Issues is highly appreciated by authors too.

7. 

Can You Briefly Describe the Key to a Happy Laboratory Life?

It is important to respect and treat all lab members as a team, creating a collaborative environment within the lab.