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2018 Frontiers Spotlight Award finalists
(in alphabetical order of the Research Topic name)
- Creating intelligent social robots
Topic Editors: Hatice Gunes, Ginevra Castellano & Bilge MutluFor robots to be truly accepted in society, they must recognize and interpret not just what we say, but also our nonverbal social cues — like body position, gestures, gaze and silences. And conversely, we humans need to trust and like our robot companions. Affective and Social Signals for HRI advances the challenging and emerging field of Human-Robot Interactions (HRI) and informs the use of robots for public good.
- Improving our brains with exercise – and video games
Topic Editors: Soledad Ballesteros, Claudia Voelcker-Rehage & Louis BhererEvidence is growing that physical exercise and video games can enhance cognitive functioning and prevent cognitive decline – at least in the short term. Cognitive and Brain Plasticity Induced by Physical Exercise, Cognitive Training, Video Games and Combined Interventions looks at ways to maximize these benefits more permanently, across all age groups and in both healthy and cognitively impaired people.
- Enhancing mental health through gaming
Topic Editors: Yasser Khazaal, Jérôme Favrod, Stéphane Bouchard, François Borgeat & Anna SortGames and computers provide an important opportunity to improve treatment of, and help prevent, mental disorders — yet the field remains under-studied and information is under-disseminated in clinical practice. Computers and games for mental health and well-being charts the latest knowledge and developments on these potentially lifesaving tools.
- Understanding the Earth’s deep carbon
Topic Editors: Donato Giovannelli, Alysia Danielle Cox, Cody Sheik & Benjamin Alexander BlackCarbon release and sequestration are pressing issues facing our society. Deep Carbon in Earth: Early Career Scientist Contributions to the Deep Carbon Observatory brings together the latest research on the Earth’s natural carbon cycle. From volcanic activity to microbiology to natural CO2 sequestering, this research helps decipher the consequences of anthropogenic carbon emissions, offers clues for addressing ongoing emissions and helps predict our planet’s future.
- Reducing damage from earthquakes
Topic Editors: Katsuichiro Goda, Tiziana Rossetto, Nobuhito Mori & Solomon TesfamariamGround shakes, tsunamis, landslides … these and other earthquake-related hazards pose major threats to individuals and modern society alike. Mega Quakes: Cascading Earthquake Hazards and Compounding Risks unites previously fragmented and inconsistent approaches and tools for assessing the risks of such hazards, with the aim of reducing loss of life and damage from potentially catastrophic earthquakes.
- Achieving sustainable agriculture
Topic Editors: Maria Tsiafouli, Evangelia G Drakou, Alberto Orgiazzi, Katarina Hedlund & Karl RitzNew agricultural systems are urgently needed to meet the growing demand for food and biomass, while also maintaining nature areas and mitigating the climatic and environmental impacts of human activities. Optimizing the Delivery of Multiple Ecosystem Goods and Services in Agricultural Systems provides critical knowledge for informing management regimes that enhance both agricultural production and the provision of multiple ecosystem services essential for both biodiversity and human wellbeing.
- Predicting and preventing disease with big data
Topic Editors: Tarun Stephen Weeramanthri, Matthew Bellgard, Gareth Baynam, James Bernard Semmens, Hugh J.S. Dawkins & Ori GudesPublic health has always relied on data to inform policies and priorities, drive health improvement across whole populations and target disadvantaged groups. Precision Public Health takes this to the next level. Building on the paradigm shift that started with human genome sequencing, it identifies other big-data tools and technologies for analyzing individuals and groups more precisely – exploring for the first time the value of this approach and identifying barriers and opportunities for targeted public health strategies.
- Managing health and disease through our gut
Topic Editors: Nathan W. Schmidt, Venkatakrishna Rao Jala, Michele Marie Kosiewicz & Pascale AlardOur intestines are home to vast numbers of bacteria, fungi and other microbes – which, far from being parasites, are increasingly recognized as being intricately involved in our health. The Gut Microbiome in Health and Diseaseraises awareness of this rapidly growing field, highlighting the diverse effect of the gut microbiome in a range of disease settings — including autoimmunity, cancer and inflammatory bowel disease – and its potential for new treatment options.
- Finding a cure for tinnitus
Topic Editors: Christopher R. Cederroth, Arnaud Norena, Berthold Langguth, Winfried Schlee, Sven Vanneste, Tobias Kleinjung, Jose Antonio Lopez-Escamez, Pim Van Dijk, Martin Meyer, Grant Searchfield, Peyman Adjamian, Rilana f.f. Cima, Deborah A Hall, Birgit Mazurek, Heidi Olze, Giriraj Singh Shekhawat, Nathan Weisz, Silvano Gallus, Jianxin Bao, Antonello Maruotti, Rüdiger Christoph Pryss, Manfred Reichert, Thomas Probst, Bård Støve & Myra SpiliopoulouMore than 100 million people worldwide suffer from chronic tinnitus — the perception of a sound when no external sound is present. A major obstacle in developing effective treatments is the large variation between patients. As the largest-ever collection of multidisciplinary research in this young field, Towards an Understanding of Tinnitus Heterogeneity provides new avenues for better therapeutic outcomes.
- Recognizing the vestibular system
Topic Editors: Bernard Cohen, Richard Lewis & Jose Antonio Lopez-EscamezBalance and eye movement are fundamental to body function– yet relatively few physicians are aware of how this vestibular system interacts with other body systems, even in common conditions such as vertigo, dizziness and motion sickness. Vestibular Contributions to Health and Disease presents the new field of Vestibular, Cerebellar and Autonomic System Disorders – bringing vital knowledge and new treatments to doctors and emergency rooms worldwide.
About the Frontiers Spotlight Award
The annual Frontiers Spotlight Award supports emerging and important fields of research published as a Research Topic in Frontiers journals.
Each year, the most active, collaborative and impactful Research Topics from the previous year are shortlisted according to their scientific and editorial excellence, international reach, subject novelty and interdisciplinarity. A Jury, drawn from members of the Frontiers Editorial Board, is then tasked with evaluating the shortlist in order to produce the final winner.
The winning team of Topic Editors receives a budget of US $100,000 to organize an international scientific conference on the theme of their Research Topic. The conference brings together academics from around the world and provides a forum to collaborate, inspire and highlight groundbreaking research. The conference for last year’s Spotlight Award is taking place this September at the SwissTech Convention Center on the campus of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL).