Microfluidics and Nanofluidics - An Interview with Editor-in-Chief Dr. Gwo-Bin Lee
Please tell us briefly about yourself, your background, and research interests
See my full bio below:
Dr. Gwo-Bin Lee received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Department of Mechanical Engineering from National Taiwan University in 1989 and 1991, respectively. He received his Ph.D. in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering from University of California, Los Angeles, USA in 1998. Dr. Gwo-Bin Lee is currently a Chair Professor in the Department of Power Mechanical Engineering at National Tsing Hua University (NTHU), Taiwan. His research interests lie on nano-biotechnology, micro/nanofluidics and their biomedical applications, mostly on screening of artificial antibodies and biomarker diagnosis. He is the director of “Microfluidic Biochips Lab” at NTHU. Dr. Lee has been very active in the field of micro/nanofluidic systems, and has developed integrated micro/nano systems incorporated with nano/biotechnology for cell, protein, and DNA manipulation and detection.
Dr. Lee has published over 350 SCI journal papers, 440 conference papers, and filed 150 patents (129 patents granted) in the past 25 years. In Google Scholar, citations of all Dr. Lee’s papers are over 22,100 times with an h-index of 76. He was General Co-chair of Micro TAS 2018, IEEE NEMS 2014, IEEE MEMS 2013, IEEE NANOMED 2013 and General chair of IEEE NEMS 2011. He was an elected Fellow of ASME, RSC, IET, IEEE, AIBME and NAI. He is also a member of European Academy of Sciences and Arts and a corresponding member of International Institute of Engineering.
How would you describe Microfluidics and Nanofluidics (MNF) to fellow researchers and academics? What, in your opinion, sets MNF apart from other journals in the field?
As mentioned on our website, the aims and scope of the journal is “to publish papers in all aspects of microfluidics, nanofluidics and lab-on-a-chip science and technology. The objectives of the journal are to (1) provide an overview of the current state of the research and development in microfluidics, nanofluidics and lab-on-a-chip devices, (2) improve the fundamental understanding of microfluidic and nanofluidic phenomena, and (3) discuss applications of microfluidics, nanofluidics and lab-on-a-chip devices.” We will stick to the same aims and scope over the next few years.
Furthermore, topics covered in MNF include:
1. Fundamental principles of micro- and nanoscale phenomena like flow, mass transport and reactions
2. Theoretical models and numerical simulation with experimental and/or analytical proof
3. Novel measurement & characterization technologies
4. Devices (actuators and sensors)
5. New unit-operations for dedicated microfluidic and nanofluidic platforms
6. Lab-on-a-chip applications
7. Microfabrication technologies and materials
MNF stands out from other journals in the field because of its distinct topics. MNF improves the fundamental understanding of microfluidic and nanofluidic phenomena, in addition to their applications. We also emphasize their state-of-the-art development. With a relatively high rejection rate (about 60%), we guarantee that only high-quality manuscripts are accepted for publishing in MNF. It is worth noting that MNF does not publish manuscripts studying pure microscale heat transfer, since there are many journals that cover this field of research. Furthermore, we do not publish numerical simulation articles without experimental and/or analytical proofs.
Why did you decide to take on the role of Editor-in-Chief (EIC)?
I have long viewed MNF as a respectable journal in the field of microfluidics and nanofluidics. I first served as an Associate Editor (AE) for 6 years, beginning in 2014, and have published 34 papers in MNF. After the previous EIC, Prof. Jan Eijkel (University of Twente, The Netherlands) stepped down, without any further hesitation, I decided to take the responsibility to serve. I was, and continue to be, eager to keep up the high standards set up by previous EICs and strive to publish high-quality papers to benefit our community.
What are you currently looking forward to as the Editor-in-Chief of the journal?
I have served as EIC now for two and half years. Ever since I took this role, I have been looking forward to achieving the following.
- Shortening the turn-around time for peer review processes efficiently. I take care of the editorial routines on a daily basis with the goal to re-gain the journal’s reputation of swift turn-around times.
- Strengthening the editorial board. I continue to recruit new talents and rising stars in this field to join the editorial board. I truly believe that they will help speed up the review process and, more importantly, attract more high-quality manuscripts.
- Increasing topical collections. I keep pushing topical collections covering hot topics in this field within the past two years. With this effort, I believe that we may provide an overview of the current state of the research and development in microfluidics, nanofluidics and lab-on-a-chip devices.
- Consistently striving to publish high-quality papers. Hopefully, we may continue to see the increasing trend of the impact factor (the IF grew from 2.529 in 2020 to 3.090 in 2021!), and see the journal enter Q1 in the near future.