We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Francesco Dell’Olio has been appointed Section Editor-in-Chief of the “Optical and Photonic Biosensors” Section in Biosensors (ISSN: 2079-6374).

Name: Prof. Dr. Francesco Dell’Olio
Homepage: https://www.poliba.it/sites/default/files/curriculum/en/CV_DellOlio_1.pdf
Affiliation: Department of Electrical and Information Engineering, Polytechnic University of Bari, 70126 Bari, Italy
Interests: photonics; optoelectronics; sensors; chemosensors

Prof. Dr. Francesco Dell'Olio was awarded his Ph.D. in information and communication technologies in 2010. Since 2019, he has been an Assistant Professor of Electronics at the same university. In 2021, he obtained the National Scientific Qualification for the position of Full Professor in Electronics and Physics of Matter from a unanimous vote by the Commissioners. His research interests include the fields of optoelectronics, photonics, and, primarily, silicon photonics. He is the co-author of 2 books published by Springer and World Scientific, more than 50 papers in international peer-reviewed journals, and 80 papers published in international conference proceedings. Since 2006, he has delivered approximately 50 oral presentations at international conferences, including more than 10 invited talks.

He is a member of the Editorial Board of the international journals Aerospace, Applied Sciences, Biosensors, Chemosensors, and Journal of Sensors and has served as a Guest Editor for several Special Issues. Currently, he is a reviewer for many international journals in the field of optoelectronics and photonics. He is a regular member of the organizing, program, and local committees of international conferences, including CLEO, SPIE Photonics West, and the IEEE Photonics Conference.

Since 2016, he has been the scientific director of two research projects funded by the University Research Fund of the Polytechnic University of Bari. He has been the beneficiary of funds for its research activities under the Fund for the Financing of Basic Research Activities in Italy. He continues to be involved in several research projects funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research, the European Space Agency, the Italian Space Agency, and a few industrial companies with scientific responsibilities. He has spent two research periods at the ESA–ESTEC in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. Finally, he co-founded a startup company, WEATECHO, which is developing wearable devices for eHealth.

The following is a short Q&A with Prof. Dr. Francesco Dell'Olio, who shared with us his vision for the journal and his views of the research area and Open Access publishing:

1. What appealed to you about the journal and encouraged you to become its Section Editor-in-Chief?
Biosensors, more than 10 years after its foundation, is a journal with an established reputation among experts in the field. More and more colleagues working in the field of optical and photonic biosensors choose Biosensors to publish their best theoretical and experimental results. In this new role, I would like to serve the scientific community and above all emerging research groups, developing the editorial initiatives of Biosensors, its attention to young researchers and the most innovative and promising research topics. I accepted this role hoping to contribute to strengthening the scientific community working in the field of optical and photonic biosensors.

2. What is your vision for Biosensors?
Biosensors is already a well-known and well-regarded journal among researchers worldwide. The attention of the global scientific community toward biosensors is growing rapidly. They are essential to implementing the digital health paradigms that are becoming crucial in all developed countries. In this context, my vision is that Biosensors has all the characteristics to become a journal capable of supporting a rapidly growing scientific community.

3. What does the future of this field of research look like?
Research in the field of biosensors is destined to grow above all from a qualitative point of view. Important research projects are underway and their results will produce significant advances in the state of the art. Biosensors would have the strategic objective of contributing to the dissemination of this new scientific and technological knowledge at the service of authors and other stakeholders, ensuring open access to results, rigorous and rapid peer review process and dissemination of the results achieved on a global scale.

4. What do you think of the development of Open Access in the publishing field?
The Gold Open Access paradigm that Biosensors has adopted for every paper since its foundation is an indispensable resource for both the scientific community and society, which is increasingly interested in the real-world application of scientific achievements. In many countries, the publication of results according to the Open Access approach is considered an essential condition for obtaining public funding. Research funded by citizens should generate results whose dissemination is open access. Only in this way can the scientific community, citizens, and companies obtain the greatest possible benefit from the work of those who do research with passion and dedication.

We warmly welcome Prof. Dr. Francesco Dell’Olio as the new Section Editor-in-Chief and we look forward to him leading Biosensors to reach many more milestones.