In spring 2020, the Biophysical Society launched a new journal: The Biophysicist. This open access publication is a place for biophysicists to describe biophysics concepts and teaching strategies; share evidence-based pedagogical practices; and discuss mentoring, professional development, and outreach.

“Our long-term goal is to foster interest in best practices, research-based teaching, and learning materials and methods in biophysics education among all members of BPS (and biophysicists worldwide) that teach courses, mentor research students, and participate in outreach activities,” said Editor-in-Chief and Weizmann Institute of Science Professor Samuel Safran. “In addition, we want to nucleate a subset of those scientists who will develop a new academic (and applied) field of biophysics education, similar to the already established educational areas in physics, chemistry, and biology.”

Patricia Soto serves on the Editorial Board and is an associate professor at Creighton University, where she teaches physics to undergraduates and conducts computational biophysics research. After reading articles in The Biophysicist, Soto is implementing new strategies into her research mentoring practices and adapting lesson plans on machine learning and Fourier Transforms for her courses. “Techniques for effective teaching in biophysics is something I had not found in education journals from physics alone or chemistry alone or biology alone. The Biophysicist is bringing all these components into a single unit, and then I can access the information faster and more easily. Our time as instructors is limited,” Soto said.

The pages of The Biophysicist became especially relevant when biophysicists scrambled to adapt to learning, teaching, and research in a socially distanced world last year. To address this seismic shift, The Biophysicist is preparing  a special issue titled “Teaching and Learning during COVID-19” in the next few months. In partnership with the Biophysical Society’s Education Committee, the Editors of The Biophysicist also organized a series of webinars.

The Biophysicist currently accepts articles in two categories: i) peer-reviewed Research Articles, which include strategies and tools to teach and learn about biophysical topics; and ii) Brief Reports, which include a student forum, book reviews, and commentary on professional development and outreach. These articles discuss a wide range of topics in biophysics education, for example:

1. A Brief Report published in January 2020 recommends effective strategies to mentor high school and undergraduate students in laboratory research. Nicholas B. Whitticar and Craig S. Nunemaker of Ohio University describe programs suitable for each age group and argue that these programs should emphasize curiosity and the scientific method. Whitticar and Nunemaker also discuss current socioeconomic barriers to undergraduate student participation in laboratory research.

2. A February 2020 Research Article presents a hands-on curriculum for teaching undergraduate students about the optics of microscopy; the curriculum emphasizes collaboration, iteration, and the tools of scientific research. Rachel Kemp and colleagues from the University of Massachusetts Amherst describe learning objectives and course modules, detail the necessary equipment and human resources, and provide assessment methods. The article also includes samples of student work and provides recommendations for adapting the curriculum for graduate students, shorter courses, or limited resource settings.

3. In a Brief Report published in June 2020, Timothy J. Welsh, a PhD student at the University of Cambridge, reflects on the impact of a spring 2020 coronavirus lockdown on his thesis research using microfluidic tools to study protein phase separation. During his time away from the lab, Welsh adopted new practices that he plans to incorporate into the remainder of his studies, including reading literature from adjacent disciplines, dedicating time to the development of coherent stories about his research results, and attending online trainings to learn new skills.

4. In an August 2020 Research Article, Jacob M. Remington and colleagues from the University of Vermont recount incorporating machine learning into an upper-level elective course about biomolecular modeling. The teaching team introduced the key principles of machine learning through a series of lectures, and then tasked students with building an algorithm and compiling training data to predict the pK_a of biological molecules. Based on the results of the student project and student-reported learning outcomes, the team provides recommendations for successful inclusion of machine learning into biophysics coursework.

To access the newest issue of The Biophysicist and learn more about submitting your research, visit www.thebiophysicist.org.