We were freshly back from our meeting in San Diego when we put the final touches on the program for the 2021 Annual Meeting. Basking still in the science and in the energy and excitement of our meeting in San Diego, we were incapable of imagining the magnitude of the dislocation the world was about to experience. Even after we began to shelter at home, we continued to work on the program with the hope that we would meet in person in February 2021.
The extraordinary times we are living through have taken us back to core questions about what we do, what we value, and why. Locked out of our labs and classrooms, with seminars and meetings cancelled, and unable to engage in daily in-person exchange with colleagues young and old, we envisioned what it would be like to meet again in person: the camaraderie, the inspiration, and the joy of face-to-face interactions. The pandemic has brought into focus the central role of human interactions in science, and that of science in society.
We were looking forward to conversations about biophysics as the informing biological discipline of the 21st century, about our responsibility to ensure a loud voice for science in policy and government, and about the need to restate the sanctity of scientific data, facts, and truth. United as the world was for a moment under the common threat of an invisible enemy, we envisioned a meeting that was to be a truly international celebration of biophysics. Alas, that is not to be. For public health reasons, but also for practical ones, we will not meet in Boston in February.
The 2021 meeting will proceed virtually. With your input, we are working on a program that will still deliver the quality science you expect at a BPS meeting. In addition, we will find ways to bring people together for targeted discussions of pressing science and for informal discussions that keep our community vibrant and engaged. Nothing will replace the chance encounters in the hallways and at the poster sessions, the cross-generational dinners, meeting new friends and getting reacquainted with old ones, or hearing about your work in person, but we will figure out how to strengthen the ties that hold our community together, and how to welcome our young colleagues who are the core of our meeting. We hope that some of you who would not otherwise have been able to attend the meeting will participate in this virtual event. Never has it been more important for everybody to join in our celebration of biophysics. We will be in touch to share our plans for a robust virtual meeting; meanwhile, stay optimistic, our in-person meeting will return in San Francisco in 2022.
—Patricia Bassereau, 2021 Program Co-Chair
—Bertrand GarcÃa-Moreno, 2021 Program Co-Chair