9th MDPI Guest Editor Club 2026 | Business & Economics Session

Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Texas Tech University, USA;
Artificial Intelligence and Data-Driven Quantitative Finance: Building High-Quality Research from Idea to Publication
Svetlozar T. Rachev is a Professor of Mathematics and Statistics at Texas Tech University, where he specializes in mathematical finance, probability, statistics, econometrics, and quantitative risk management. Before joining Texas Tech University in 2017, he held professorial and endowed-chair positions at Stony Brook University, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, and the University of California, Santa Barbara. He received his Ph.D. in Mathematics from Lomonosov Moscow State University and his Doctor of Science degree from the Steklov Mathematical Institute. Professor Rachev has authored and edited numerous books and has published extensively on heavy-tailed distributions, probability metrics, asset pricing, portfolio optimization, financial econometrics, and risk management. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, an elected member of the International Statistical Institute, a Senior Humboldt Professor Award recipient, and the recipient of distinguished research and innovation awards from Texas Tech University.

Centre for Tourism Research, Development and Innovation (CiTUR), Leiria, University of Leiria and Oeste, Portugal;
Ethical and Responsible Guest Editorship: Strengthening Quality, Integrity and Trust in Special Issues
Lucília Cardoso is a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Tourism Research, Development and Innovation (CiTUR), Leiria, University of Leiria and Oeste, Portugal, where she coordinates the research line in Neuroscience Applied to Tourism. She holds a PhD in Business Sciences and Tourism from the University of Vigo, Spain. In February 2026, she obtained her Aggregation in Tourism from the University of Algarve, Portugal, following public examinations centred on Neurotourism. After ten years as a lecturer in Tourism, she pursued a research career and currently supervises doctoral students. She was a visiting researcher at the Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Neuro-X, EPFL, Switzerland, where she worked with neuroscientific methods, sense of agency and episodic memory. Her research focuses on destination image and imagery, destination choice, tourist behaviour, and the application of neuroscience to tourism, marketing and business. Her work combines interdisciplinary perspectives to examine how cognitive, emotional and behavioural processes influence decision-making and experiences in tourism and related contexts.

Bond Business School, Bond University, Australia;
Auditing the Algorithm: GenAI’s Role and Reliability in Financial Peer Review
Dr. Rand Low is an Associate Professor of Quantitative Finance at the Bond Business School. He has held Honorary Associate Professor roles and Visiting Research Fellow roles at the University of Queensland and New York University—Stern School of Business. His research specializes in portfolio optimization, risk management, blockchain technology, and machine learning applications in financial markets. His work has been published in leading academic journals, including the Journal of Banking & Finance, Energy Economics, and Quantitative Finance. Prior to his academic career, Dr. Low worked in control systems engineering at Honeywell, earning the Chartered Professional Engineer (CPEng) designation with Engineers Australia. Following his PhD in Finance from the University of Queensland, he received an Australia Awards—Endeavour Fellowship and major research grants in portfolio optimization for financial crises. Dr. Low’s career bridges academia and Wall Street. He has served in senior quantitative roles at BlackRock and Bank of America Merrill Lynch in New York City, leading teams in risk modeling, stress testing, and model governance, while representing quantitative practices to US regulators like the Federal Reserve and the Office of Comptroller of Currency. Additionally, he regularly provides expert financial commentary for international media and parliamentary inquiries.

Department of Management Information Systems, King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia;
What Every Author Should Know: Insights from the Editorial Side
Dr. Dana Sami Bakry is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Management Information Systems at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. She earned her Ph.D. in Systems Science with a specialization in Technology Management from Portland State University, where she also completed a Graduate Certificate in Strategic Management of Technology. She holds an M.S. in Systems Engineering from Loyola Marymount University and a B.S. in Management Information Systems from King Abdulaziz University. Her research interests include technology management, innovation ecosystems, sustainable entrepreneurship, artificial intelligence, digital transformation, technology forecasting, and strategic decision-making. Her work focuses on developing interdisciplinary frameworks that support technology adoption, innovation policy, and organizational resilience. She has published in leading international journals, including Technovation, Journal of Small Business Management, and IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management. Dr. Bakry is actively engaged in the global engineering management community through IEEE Technology and Engineering Management Society (IEEE TEMS) and PICMET. She currently serves as Guest Editor for the Administrative Sciences (MDPI) Special Issue on resilient and agile SMEs, Technical Program Vice Chair for IEEE TEMSCON Global 2026, and previously served as a Program Committee Member for IEEE TEMSCON Global 2025 and Editorial Assistant for PICMET. She is also a member of the OMEGA RHO® International Honor Society and is committed to advancing research, collaboration, and innovation in technology and engineering management.