We’re excited to welcome our first 4 topic editors to the editorial team. They bring a wealth of knowledge, expertise, and perspectives from different mountain regions of the world. In the coming 3 years, they will organize and oversee the peer review and revision of submissions within their respective topics. They will also promote the journal among their networks and encourage submissions from their field.
Biraj Adhikari will work on the topic of “Governance, Institutions, and Society.” He is a postdoctoral researcher affiliated with University College London, currently based in Nepal with the NGO Practical Action. His work examines how people and institutions interact in the context of changing environments, globalization, and socioeconomic transitions, with a particular focus on climate change adaptation and conservation. He’s especially interested in supporting research that’s coproduced with communities and can contribute to equitable local outcomes.
Sunetra Ghatak will be responsible for “Economy and Livelihoods.” She is Associate Professor of Economics at O.P. Jindal Global University, India, a Visiting Fellow at Asian Confluence, and a HUC Fellow with the Asian Mountain Academic Alliance at ICIMOD. Her research engages with gender, migration, climate resilience, regional connectivity, and sustainable livelihoods, with a particular focus on South Asia.
Ricardo Grau will oversee the topic of “Land Use, Biodiversity, and Ecosystems.” Professor and Researcher at the Instituto de Ecología Regional of Universidad Nacional de Tucumán and Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas in Yerba Buena, Argentina, he is a land scientist interested in land use change, disturbances, biological invasions, and biodiversity. His research has mostly focused on different landscapes of South America, with the Andes as a main interest.
Denis Samyn will be in charge of “Climate Change, Cryosphere, Natural Hazards and Risks.” He is Associate Professor and Senior Researcher at the University of Central Asia’s Mountain Societies Research Institute. He describes himself as a passionate earth scientist and glaciologist with interdisciplinary expertise in glacier, permafrost, and snow dynamics studies aimed at informing disaster risk management, regional climate adaptation, and water risk planning in high mountain environments and polar regions. His current research focuses on cryosphere and geohazards monitoring in the Pamirs and Tien Shan of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.
We’re delighted to expand our team with these 4 committed experts. With their diverse knowledge and backgrounds, they will make invaluable contributions to the journal and the broader community and thereby help to further strengthen MRD as a not-for-profit, society-based scientific journal.
