About the Editors
Like the other Nature titles, Nature Energy has no external editorial board. Instead, all editorial decisions are made by a dedicated team of professional editors, with relevant research and editorial backgrounds.
Chief Editor: Changjun Zhang, PhD, Springer Nature, UK
Changjun, widely known as Alex, joined the Nature Portfolio in April 2013 as an editor for Nature Communications, overseeing a wide range of topics spanning materials chemistry and energy research. He became part of the launch team of Nature Energy in August 2015, focusing on energy storage for much of the journal's first decade, and also briefly served as a Consulting Editor at Nature. He became Chief Editor of Nature Energy in April 2024. Alex received his PhD in surface catalysis from Queen’s University Belfast and later expanded into energy production and storage at the University of Cambridge. He is based in the London office.
Senior Editor: James Gallagher, PhD, Springer Nature, UK
James arrived at Nature Energy in September 2015. After receiving an MSc in Natural Sciences (Chemistry) from the University of Cambridge, he moved to the University of Liverpool for his PhD, where he developed high-throughput screens to evaluate Fischer-Tropsch catalysts for the production of liquid fuels from syngas. During his postdoctoral work at Argonne National Laboratory he used synchrotron X-ray techniques to study new catalysts for energy applications, with a focus on biomass and alkane transformations. James is based in the London office.
Senior Editor: Silvana Lakeman, PhD, Springer Nature, Germany
Silvana joined the Nature Portfolio in March 2021 as an editor for Nature Communications, where she handled a wide range of topics in the environmental social sciences, including energy, climate change, policy, governance and economics. In November 2022 she joined Nature Energy, where she handles social science, economics and policy content. Silvana received her PhD in Political Science from the University of Bremen, where her research focused on environmental governance and disaster displacement. Previously, she has worked in NGOs and in a consulting capacity on environmental migration and EU energy policy. Silvana is based in the Berlin office.
Senior Editor: Xinru Li, PhD, Springer Nature, China
Xinru joined Nature Energy in May 2025. She received her master’s degree in chemistry from Columbia University and later earned her PhD in chemical engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she also conducted postdoctoral research. Her work focused on lithium-based batteries and photocatalysis. Xinru began her editorial career at Wiley before joining the Energy Materials team at Nature Communications in March 2023. In June 2024, she moved to the Research Cross-Journal Editorial team, where she primarily supported Nature-branded research journals, including Nature Materials, Nature Chemistry, and Nature Sustainability. Xinru is based in the Shanghai office.
Senior Editor: Giulia Tregnago, PhD, Springer Nature, UK
Giulia joined Nature Energy in May 2018. She obtained her PhD in Physics from University College London where she studied the photophysics of organic semiconductors and their application in light-emitting diodes. She then took up a position as project manager within a Horizon 2020 European Training Network on organic materials for photonics and optoelectronics. She did an internship at Solaronix, Switzerland, where she worked on dye-sensitized solar cells. Giulia is based in the London office.
Senior Editor: Mengjie Wei, PhD, Springer Nature, China
Mengjie joined Nature Energy in May 2026. She obtained a PhD in physics from the University of St Andrews and continued as a postdoctoral fellow, focusing on light-matter interactions in organic semiconductors. She then moved to Tsinghua University for postdoctoral research on perovskite-based optoelectronic applications. Mengjie joined the Nature Portfolio in April 2023 as an editor for Nature Communications, where she handled broad topics of semiconductor-based optoelectronic devices. Mengjie is based in the Shanghai office.
The Research Cross-Journal Editorial Team supports the Nature-branded research journals, with a focus on handling primary research manuscripts.
The Reviews Cross-Journal Editorial Team handles Research Briefing articles for the Nature-branded research journals.
