Highlights from this month. 

Greetings fellow biophysicists. I write this missive as I prepare to become the President of our great Society for the next year.

With Biophysics Week taking place later this month, March is well suited to announce a new initiative BPS is actively taking part in with the larger  scientific community — the Society Civic Science Initiative. This initiative is a growing collaboration of more than 55 scientific organizations working in conjunction with each other to cultivate a culture of civic science.

BPS is excited to launch its new, fully open access journal, The Biophysicist. Aimed at undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate students and trainees, active researchers, and scholars of biophysics teaching and learning, this journal highlights education in biophysics and related disciplines.

The Education Committee, in cooperation with the Biophysical Society staff have been distributing light microscopes in India. This outreach effort is made possible by a 2016 gift of 500 small wooden microscopes from Echo Laboratories and Chroma Technology Corp.

Spatial Organization of Biological Functions
Bangalore, India
August 16–19, 2020

Recent studies have shown that the dynamic spatial organization of different molecular components and activities within a cell and different cells within a tissue or community play critical roles in enabling the full functionality of the organism.

Jesus Perez-Gil, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Dean of Biology at Complutense University of Madrid, considers himself lucky, having spent his whole scientific life focused on one primary scientific problem, the pulmonary surfactant system. In this way and many others, he is following in the footsteps of prominent biophysicists he admires, who “have dedicated their lives to working hard studying interesting biological problems while also enjoying life, maintaining a humble spirit, and helping those around them as much as possible.”