Bio
Professor Brian Garrod is the author of eight textbooks and more than 50 research articles, focusing mainly on the marketing and management of tourism destinations. He is co-editor-in chief of the Journal of Destination Marketing & Management and sits on the editorial board of seven other academic journals. He has undertaken research for a wide range of organisations, including the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the European Union Interreg IIc fund, the Welsh Government, Visit Wales, the Countryside Agency and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).

Talk
Enhancing Peer Review with AI: A Young Investigator’s Experience

Bio
Dr. Zongjie (Daniel) Wang currently leads a research group at the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Network. His work focuses on designing and applying bioengineered systems for next-generation precision medicine. Dr. Wang’s work has been recognized with several prestigious awards, including the Dimitris N. Chorafas Foundation Prize, and the Extraordinary Potential Award from the China Scholarship Council. In addition to his research, he consults for multiple cell and gene therapy companies.

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The Reviewer's Concern During the Peer Reviewing Process on the Journal Manuscript

Bio
Miaohua Mao, Male, Doctor of Philosophy, Research Professor, and PhD advisor. Mao got BS in the Zhejiang University and achieved PhD degree in the University of Maryland in 2018. Mao work at Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research (YIC), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and is the recipient of the CAS’s high-level young scholar. Mao’s research interests include not are not limited to coastal and estuarine physical oceanography. Dr. Mao has published nearly 20 papers as first/corresponding author in the prestigious top journals of physical oceanography and numerical modeling including JPO, JGR: Oceans and Ocean Modelling. Dr. Mao is the reviewer for the NSFC proposals and Ph.D. thesis. Mao is a reviewer of peer-reviewed journals such as Progress in Oceanography, Ocean Modelling, Water Resources Research etc. Miaohua Mao is the recipient of the Outstanding Reviewer Award for the journals ECSS and JMSE in 2018 and 2023, respectively. Dr. Mao is the Principal Investigator (PI) of several projects including the Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and the China host for the projects including the International (regional) Cooperation and Exchange Program from NSFC, President’s International Fellowship for Young Staff from CAS, and Fellowship for Young Staff from Ministry of Science and Technology.

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AI in Peer Review: Enhancing Efficiency, Addressing Limitations

Bio
Dr. Chanaka Navarathna is a postdoctoral associate at the University of Utah, currently focused on developing reliable analytical methods for PFAS analysis in post-degradation mixtures. He is also an independent neuroscientist working on a polyvagal model to reverse dysautonomia and post-COVID complications. He earned his PhD in Analytical Chemistry from Mississippi State University in 2021, where his research centered on water treatment using exotic biochar-based multifunctional adsorbents. Afterward, he served as non-tenure track faculty and later joined Rice University's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering to study halite scaling and inhibition. In August 2023, he joined Prof. Long Luo's research group at Wayne State University, which has since relocated to the University of Utah, to work on hydrogen bubble-based sensors for PFAS detection.

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Pencils to Processors: How AI is Cracking the Peer Review Puzzle

Bio
Dr. Enric Sayas holds a bachelor’s degree in in Agricultural Engineering and a PhD in Biotechnology from the Polytechnic University of Valencia, as well as a completed post-doc at the University of Geneva. He joined MDPI in 2016, where he now works a business analyst focusing on new AI applications.