We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Jun-Jie Zhu has been appointed Associate Editor in Biosensors (ISSN 2079-6374).

Name: Prof. Dr. Jun-Jie Zhu
Homepage: https://hysz.nju.edu.cn/jjzhu/29594/list.htm
Affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Life Science, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
Interest: electrochemical sensing; bioanalysis; bioimaging; nanoanalysis

Prof. Dr. Jun-Jie Zhu is a Full Professor at Nanjing University. He obtained his B.S. degree in chemistry in 1984 and his Ph.D. degree in 1993 at Nanjing University. He served as a postdoc fellow at Bar Ilan University, Israel (1998–1999). He became an Associate Professor in 1996 and a Full Professor in 2001 at Nanjing University. He was awarded the National Distinguished Young Scholar prize in 2003 and was invited as an FRSC in 2016. His research work focuses on analytical chemistry and nanochemistry, including bioanalytical chemistry, electroanalytical chemistry, nanobioelectrochemistry, optical analysis of nanomaterials, bio-application of nanomaterials, etc. He has published over 500 papers in international journals, which have been cited more than 27,000 times, with an H-index of 101. He was ranked in the Elsevier’s annual list of China’s Most Cited Researchers in chemistry from 2014 to 2021. He was also a highly cited researcher from the Thomson Reuters highly cited researcher index in the Cross-Field category from 2018 to 2021. He serves as an Associate Editor of Current Smart Materials, Frontiers in Sensors, and Analyst.

The following is a short Q&A with Prof. Dr. Zhu, who shared his vision for the journal with us, as well as his views of the research area and open access publishing:

1. What appealed to you about the journal that made you want to take the role as its Associate Editor?
Biosensing is an important topic in many disciplines such as analytical chemistry, biology, the environment, and so on. Therefore, I believe in the mission of the journal Biosensors to disseminate scientific research. The journal has a good reputation and an excellent editorial team in the academic community. It is a great honor to participate in this group and take this responsibility. I want to make an effort to act as a bridge between authors and readers, facilitating the dissemination of works of a high standard. The journal also provides a resource for those just starting their research in the field of biosensors. From my personal experience, it is ecstatic to put biosensors into daily life, and I hope this exciting field is useful to our wide readers.

2. What is your vision for Biosensors?
My vision for the journal is to maintain the standard in paper quality and to increase the attraction through flexible contents and enjoyable forms. For example, some kind of video presentations about experimental directions could be embedded into the traditional text contents. Compared with the text form, the video format is more accessible with mobile phones and spreads more easily in apps. After all, biosensors are connected with our daily lives very closely. I think that people, even without the relevant knowledge background, are probably surprised when seeing the roles of biosensors in the journal.

3. What does the future of this field of research look like?
Biosensors is a useful but complex field. Its development needs joint efforts from chemists, biologists, electrical engineers, and mechanical engineers. It is a good beginning to see more collaborations between scholars and people who need biosensors in their daily work such as doctors, police, and environmental inspectors. On the one hand, scholars develop advanced biosensors to pursue intellectual beauty. On the other hand, more robust biosensors have been commercialized in markets. Nowadays, biosensors are spread over every branch of frontier science ranging from fundamental measurement science to advanced artificial intelligence technology. We anticipate that these different types of biosensors will be applied in our practical daily life just like glucometers, one of the most common applications.

4. What do you think of the development of Open Access in the publishing field?
Open Access is beneficial to our general readers who are interested in the content of papers. Open Access provides a more convenient way to access the scientific edge in academy. Certainly, whether or not Open Access is the right choice, we should consider many intertwined factors such as the cost, convenience, sustainability, and cultural difference. It is right to provide opportunities to authors who cannot afford the cost of publication. It is also right to provide opportunities to readers who cannot afford the cost of access. I think many efforts have been made to push Open Access to become more common despite the obstacles. I support the development of Open Access because it accelerates the spread of knowledge, and the whole system is improving for authors and readers. On the one hand, I understand the difficulties and inevitable failures when we are stepping into the age of Open Access. On the other hand, I envision that it is more reasonable to perform Open Access in some journals.

We warmly welcome Prof. Dr. Jun-Jie Zhu in taking up his role as Associate Editor, and we look forward to him leading Biosensors to many more milestones.