We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Lamberto Rondoni has been appointed as the Editor-in-Chief of the new section “Non-Equilibrium Phenomena” in Entropy.

Lamberto Rondoni is a full Professor of Mathematical Physics at the Politecnico di Torino in Italy and holds secondary appointments at Università di Torino and INFN (Italian Institute for Nuclear Physics). He works in statistical physics, particularly on the subjects of fluctuations at the nanoscale and general non-equilibrium systems. Statistical mechanics aims at describing the physical properties of a macroscopic system on the basis of the behavior of its microscopic constituents [1]. The most developed part of statistical physics concerns equilibrium situations, but the majority of assumptions employed for systems at equilibrium have limited application for out of equilibrium phenomena, and dedicated tools are required. Recent efforts led by a number of scientists including Lamberto Rondoni have unveiled exciting new and rigorous results, which are collectively known as fluctuation relations [2–5]. These represent one of the few general, accurate descriptions achieved so far in non-equilibrium systems, covering a wide variety of phenomena and observables. Furthermore, these developments have led to numerous results concerning the response of the widest class of systems to perturbations. Currently, research in this field is of particular interest in bio- and nanosciences and technology, as well as in soft sciences (socio-economic, media and communications, etc.) in which the notion of proper equilibrium cannot be established and in which stationary states are characterized by large fluctuations.

We warmly welcome Prof. Dr. Lamberto Rondoni as the Editor-in-Chief of the section “Non-Equilibrium Phenomena”, and we look forward to Entropy achieving many milestones under his leadership. For further information on the journal section, please click:

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/entropy/sections/non-equilibrium_phenomena

References

1. Chandler, D.W. Introduction to Modern Statistical Mechanics; Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK, 1987.
2. Evans, D.J.; Searles, D.J. The fluctuation theorem. Adv. Phys. 2002, 51, 1529–1585.
3. Gallavotti, G.; Cohen, E.G.D. Dynamical ensembles in nonequilibrium statistical mechanics. Phys. Rev. Lett. 1995, 74, 2694–2697.
4. Jarzynski, C. Nonequilibrium equality for free energy differences. Phys. Rev. Lett. 1997, 78, 2690–2693.
5. Marconi, U.M.B.; Puglisi, A.; Rondoni, L.; Vulpiani, A. Fluctuation-dissipation: Response theory in statistical physics. Phys. Rep. 2008, 461, 111–195.