On behalf of MDPI's management team and everyone working within the company, we would like to comment on the case of an email sent by Dr. Shu-Kun Lin, the president of MDPI, to an external mailing list.

In his email, Dr. Shu-Kun Lin may appear to be defending Professor Tomas Hudlicky's opinion regarding inclusiveness and diversity in his now retracted paper published in "Angewandte Chemie International Edition". Such comments are made by Dr Lin as a private person and do not represent MDPI's views. We found his message disconcerting and do not approve of it. However, in a subsequent reply Dr. Lin apologized and clarified the misunderstanding while affirming his efforts to foster diversity within the company.

We strongly reject the views expressed in Prof. Hudlicky’s paper.

At MDPI, we are used to working with multicultural and diverse teams representing 20 nationalities based in seven different countries. A majority of MDPI’s employees are female, both at entry level and in managerial roles. We remain committed to providing equal opportunities to employees, irrespective of nationality, gender, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation. We also constantly try to promote gender diversity in science in our journals. See some examples here:

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/remotesensing/special_issues/shemaps

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/drones/special_issues/shemaps_drones

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sensors/special_issues/Women_Sensors

Furthermore, we would like to assure everyone who works with us that MDPI, as an international and open access publisher, was founded on the principles of ethnic diversity, gender equality, respect and equal opportunities for all of its members, which is an integral part of our organization's culture.

Delia Mihaila
Chief Executive Officer
On behalf of the MDPI management team