We are pleased to announce the winners of the 2020 Travel Awards, sponsored by MDPI and Applied Sciences. The awards were granted to six outstanding young researchers working in thematic areas:

Travel Award in Earth Sciences and Geography 2020

Nicolò Giordano holds post-doc fellowship at Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS) focusing on evaluation of themthermal energy storage potential for buildings and greenhouses in Nunavik, Québec; development of a methodology for oscillatory thermal response tests in borehole heat exchangers to evaluate the subsurface heat capacity; and use of near surface geophysical surveys to image permafrost, monitor the thermal plume of underground storage systems, and characterize the subsurface thermal properties.

Travel Award in Energy 2020

Alfonso González Briones holds a Ph.D. in computer engineering from the University of Salamanca. In 2018, his thesis was second place in the 1st SENSORS+CIRTI Award for the best national thesis in Smart Cities (CAEPIA 2018). Alfonso González Briones is a project manager of Industry 4.0 and Internet of Thing projects at the AIRInstitute. He is also a lecturer for Master of Industry 4.0 at the International University of La Rioja (UNIR).

Travel Award in Environmental and Sustainable Science and Technology 2020

Marco Vocciante joined University of Genoa (UniGe) as Ph.D. student in 2013. He has been involved in projects dealing with mathematical modeling, process data reconciliation and optimization, energy efficiency, and environmental protection. After his Ph.D. appointment in early 2016, he was the holder of a two-year postdoc grant on issues of environmental interest and is currently working as assistant professor at the University of Genoa. He is actively involved in teaching activities of the Department of Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry (DCCI).

Travel Award in Nanotechnology and Applied Nanosciences 2020

Daniel M. Balazs is a postdoctoral research associate from the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Cornell University, U.S. He work includes understanding the growth of single-crystalline colloidal quantum dot arrays, developing scalable techniques for the formation of ordered, electronic-quality quantum dot assemblies, and managing students working on the project.

Travel Award Optics and Lasers 2020

Kayn Forbes is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the School of Chemistry at the University of East Anglia. He obtained his M.S. degree in chemistry in 2014 and Ph.D. in theoretical physics in 2018. He began his independent research fellowship in September 2019, where he has been theoretically studying optical light–matter interactions and photonics.

Stefano Signorini is a postdoctoral researcher from the University of Trento. His research topics include: integrated nonlinear optics and quantum photonics and near- and mid-infrared heralded single photons on a silicon chip. Stefano Signorini is a scientific consultant for Indivenire srl, Trento. His projects include developing a solution to the gas nozzle dripping problem and optimization of the laser cavity of a laser welding machine.

This has certainly been a difficult decision, with such a collection of high quality applications for the awards. We would like to thank all of the applicants for submitting such a range of diverse and fascinating research topics and congratulate the winners for their accomplishment.

For more information about Applied Science awards, please see this page.