Biophysical Society Bulletin | April 2024

Council Update

Officers President Gabriela K. Popescu President-Elect Lynmarie K. Thompson Past-President Taekjip Ha Secretary Teresa Giraldez Treasurer Samantha Harris Council Patricia Bassereau Margaret Cheung Martin Gruebele Taviare Hawkins Anne Kenworthy Syma Khalid Emmanuel Margeat Anita Niedziela-Majka Elizabeth Rhoades Tamar Schlick Valeria Vasquez Jing Xu Biophysical Journal Vasanthi Jayaraman Editor-in-Chief The Biophysicist Padmini Rangamani Editor-in-Chief Biophysical Reports

importance of the two successive President’s Symposia Black in Biophysics, in 2023 and 2024, and voted unanimously for this event to continue in future years as an integral part of the program. BPS Editors-in-Chief Vasanthi Jayaraman , Pad mini Rangamani , and Jörg Enderlein attended Wednesday’s New Council meeting as well and provided updates on Biophysical Journal , The Biophysicist , and Biophysical Reports , respec tively. Biophysical Journal published several special issues recently with several more in the pipeline. Jayaraman invited participants from the JUST-B poster session and the Black in Biophysics mixer to contribute Research Highlights to the journal and encouraged members of Council to submit research articles and reviews. Rangamani shared that The Biophysicist will have a special issue on Effective Mentoring in Biophysics, and the ed itors are exploring an issue on AI in Biophysics Education. Enderlein noted that he was adding editors from India and China to the Biophysical Reports editorial board to broaden the geo graphical range of the editors. Kathleen Hall , Chair of the Publications Committee, was in attendance as well and echoed the sentiments of all the editors that it is important for leader ship and members to continue (and increase!) their submissions to all the BPS journals.

In December, we shared in this column that a Sustainable Future Task Force was initiated to explore steps we should take to empower members who would like to use their skills and expertise toward research related to a sustainable future and to explore steps that we should take to align Society activities with the goal of achieving a sustainable future. After initial research and two meetings, it was clear that a more permanent entity within BPS would be needed to pursue the mandate of sustainability. To that end, Council approved the recommendation to evolve the task force into a new committee. Details about the committee are included on the front page of this issue. Sustainability is such a critical issue that it may well be the focus of the President’s Symposium at BPS2025. We will keep you posted! As always, the discussions at Council were multi-faceted and the decisions made by Council reflect input from many voices and thoughtful consideration of different per spectives. We welcome your input, too, and invite you to reach out to us at any time at popescu@buffalo.edu or jpesanelli@biophys ics.org. — Gabriela K. Popescu , President — Jennifer Pesanelli , Executive Officer

Jörg Enderlein Editor-in-Chief

Society Office Jennifer Pesanelli Executive Officer Newsletter

Executive Editor Jennifer Pesanelli Managing Editor John Long Production Ray Wolfe Meredith Zimmerman Proofreader/Copy Editor The Biophysical Society Newsletter (ISSN 0006-3495) is published eleven times per year, January-December, by the Biophysical Society, 5515 Security Lane, Suite 1110, Rockville, Maryland 20852. Distributed to USA members and other countries at no cost. Cana dian GST No. 898477062. Postmaster: Send address changes to Biophysical Society, 5515 Security Lane, Suite 1110, Rockville, MD 20852. Copyright © 2024 by the Biophysical Society. Darren Early Laura Phelan

Nominate yourself or a colleague for a 2025 Society Award Explore Four New Awards: Klaus Schulten and Zaida Luthey-Schulten Computational Biophysics Lecture Award, Early Independent Career Award, Outstanding Doctoral Research in Biophysics Award, and PUI Faculty Award. To ensure a diverse candidate pool, we particularly encourage nominations of women, international members, and those from underrepresented groups. Learn more by visiting our website: biophysics.org/awards-funding/society-awards. Application Deadline: May 1, 2024

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