1. Could you briefly introduce yourself to the readers?
I am Jelena Petrović, Doctor of Chemistry Science, from Belgrade, Serbia. I am employed at the Institute for Technology of Nuclear and Other Mineral Raw Materials in the laboratory for chemical testing as a participant in the development of new and improvement of existing analytical methods and procedures and training of young researchers and associates. My main research fields are biotechnology, agriculture, materials and chemical technologies. My investigations are based on the implementation and optimization of conversion technologies, especially the hydrothermal carbonization process, to valorize agricultural residues into value-added products. The main aspect of the research includes detailed characterization of the obtained materials and investigation of its potential utilization as solid biofuels and/or new generation of adsorbents, with special emphasis put on the examination of various types of chemical modification of the hydrochars surface in order to improve the adsorption properties of these materials. As an author or coauthor, I have published over 20 publications (h-index 11-SCOPUS). In addition, I have been a reviewer of numerous scientific MDPI journals.

2. Which research topics do you think will be of particular interest to the research community in the coming years?
It would definitely be obtaining energy from renewable sources, which includes various conversions and improvements of starting precursors, with the aim of producing new materials with advanced performances.

3. Based on your rich reviewing experience, could you please share the common problems that authors face?
From my point of view, I notice that when characterizing materials, researchers just present the results, without a deeper interpretation. I believe that this is an important shortcoming and that the study loses its importance as a result. In addition, the scientific novelty of the proposed study is often not emphasized enough.

4. Could you please share some useful skills to help young researchers achieve their research goals smoothly?
To be up to date with the latest research topics. To summarize the knowledge gained from experimental studies. To be more systematic during the preparation of the manuscript.

5. Fuels is an open access journal. Could you tell us about your idea for the development of the journal and the open access model?
Recently, Fuels has published a lot of high-quality papers, which I believe will be cited a lot. Open access significantly contributes to the promotion of the journal, but also to publications that are now widely available.

The Fuels Editorial Office would like to express its sincere appreciation of Dr. Jelena T. Petrović, who is an excellent scientist in her field. Since 2019, she has published more than 10 papers, and some of them have had more than 10 citations. In addition, she has rich experience in reviewing papers and has reviewed over 50 papers since 2020. She has also provided many valuable suggestions to authors and the Editorial Office, for example, hot topics, clarity about the scope of the work and skills to achieve their research goals. We believe her suggestions will provide great help to authors to orient their research direction and improve the quality of their articles.

MDPI is committed to publishing high-quality articles efficiently, and we as a company agree with Dr. Jelena T. Petrović that the open access model will significantly contribute to the promotion of high-quality papers published in our journal to reach our goal to share new knowledge and technology with all readers, researchers, and scholars all around the world. Moreover, MDPI makes many efforts such as providing vouchers for reviewers to show our thanks for their help, cooperating with universities on the Institutional Open Access Program (IOAP) to improve the popularity of the journal, increasing regular contributions, and so on. In addition, it is our great honor to hear the high praise for Fuels, and we hope these efforts will make a difference.