We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Mohammad Hassan Khooban has been appointed Editor-in-Chief of the newly established Section “Energy System Design” in Designs (ISSN: 2411-9660).

Dr. Khooban received his Ph.D. in power systems and electronics from the Shiraz University of Technology, Shiraz, Iran, in 2017. From 2016 to 2017 he was a Research Assistant at Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark, where he conducted research on the advanced control of microgrids and marine power systems. From 2017 to 2018 he was a Postdoctoral Associate at Aalborg University. From 2019 to 2020 he was a Postdoctoral Research Assistant at Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark, where he is currently an Assistant Professor. He is the Director of the Power Circuits and Systems Research Group. He has authored or co-authored more than 220 publications in journals and international conferences, 3 book chapters, and holds 1 patent; at present, his Google Scholar h-index is 45. His current research interests include control theory and applications in addition to power electronics and its applications in power systems, industrial electronics, and renewable energy systems.

The following is a short Q&A with Prof. Dr. Mohammad Hassan Khooban, who shared with us his vision for the journal and his views on 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 its Section Editor-in-Chief?
What appealed to me about the journal was primarily its major concern with energy systems, which is not only very close to my own area of research but also a hot topic for research nowadays given the global attempt to provide cleaner and more sustainable sources of energy. What further appealed to me was the journal’s high quality of publications as well as its feature of being open access, which make it a rich source of information for researchers all around the world in the field of energy systems.

2. What is your vision for the Section?
As the Editor-in-Chief of the “Energy System Design” Section, my plan is to promote the citations and impact of the journal by supporting the publication of novel, ground-breaking studies in the field so that the journal will be one of the main sources of information for researchers. In this regard I will try to back the publication of pioneering studies that focus on emerging topics and/or contribute to the promotion of knowledge and understanding of phenomena that are not well-understood in the field, or that offer unorthodox experimental/simulation techniques to be used by other researchers in the field of energy systems.

3. What does the future of this field of research look like?
As green energy sources replace fossil fuels there is a growing tendency toward the digitalization and smartening of energy systems, so that they become more efficient, cost-effective, and user-friendly. This trend requires interdisciplinary research that involves the combination of various disciplines, from computer science to energy systems and hardware-in-the-loop emulation. Accordingly, I believe that future research in the field of energy systems will be interdisciplinary research that relies on artificial intelligence to design smart power systems that make green energy more readily and efficiently available to all users in all steps of their daily lives, thereby facilitating the transition to renewable energies.

4. What do you think of the development of open access in publishing?
I highly advocate open access publications in the field due to their numerous advantages. On the one hand, it allows knowledge to be shared with researchers from all over the world, thus leading to higher-visibility articles. On the other hand, with new knowledge being available to all researchers for free, they will be more likely to build on it and conduct new studies in the field. Moreover, open access publications will make the results of research studies available to the public as well, thus resulting in the better dissemination of research findings.

We warmly welcome Prof. Dr. Mohammad Hassan Khooban in taking up his role as Section Editor-in-Chief, and we look forward to him leading Designs to many more milestones.