We are pleased to announce that Dr. Filippo Rossi has been appointed Editor-in-Chief of the Section “Gel Processing and Engineering” in Gels (ISSN: 2310-2861, IF: 4.432).

Dr. Filippo Rossi is affiliated with Politecnico di Milano as an associate professor. He completed his Ph.D. in chemical engineering. His research activity is focused on soft materials both on macroscopic and nanoscale, their physicochemical characterization and study of their biological compatibility in vitro and in vivo, together with their ability to control the release of drugs.

In particular, his activity is focused on hydrogels, which can be formed at the site of application from soluble or dispersed precursors through an in-situ gelation process, based on a two-stage cross-linking, firstly physical (aggregation) and then chemical (covalent bond formation).

Moreover, his interests also involve colloidal particles: objects characterized by a sub-micron size and by a kinetic stability towards aggregation provided by an appropriate composition of their surface.

In parallel with his experimental activity, Dr. Filippo Rossi is also involved in two types of model-based studies:

• Modeling, using population balances, of degradation and release rates applied to different biodegradable polymeric medical devices (suture threads, drug eluting stents, micro and nanoparticles);
• Modeling drug transport through hydrogels in a diffusion or superdiffusion regime.

The following is a short Q&A with Dr. Filippo Rossi, who shared his vision for the Section with us as well as his views on 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 Section Editor-in-Chief?
The world of semisolid matrices has developed rapidly in the last ten years, and together with fundamental studies, there is a strong need to discuss technological and scale-up aspects in order to reach the final market.

2. What is your vision for the Section?
I aim for this Section to become the home for all those studies where questions about moving from lab to plants can be discussed together with all the issues associated.

3. What does the future of this field of research look like, in your view?
In my view, the future of the field will be dedicated to all the physicochemical aspects associated with the big production of gel-based materials together with safety concerns and sustainable aspects.

4. What do you think of the development of Open Access in the publishing field?
Open access can definitely improve the knowledge of the entire scientific community.

5. Who should contribute to this Section?
Scientists from academia, research institutions, and industries interested in the investigation of gel-based materials from the lab to the market.

We wish Dr. Filippo Rossi every success in his new position, and we look forward to his contributions to the journal.