Biophysical Society Bulletin | April 2025

Council Update

Officers President Lynmarie K. Thompson President-Elect Karen G. Fleming Past-President Gabriela K. Popescu Secretary Teresa Giraldez Treasurer Samantha Harris Council

Biophysical Journal , with Tamar Schlick as the first person to fill the role, as well as approv ing candidates to fill Editorial Board Member vacancies. We established the 2025 Nominating Commit tee during New Council, and Janice Robertson was approved as the chair of the Awards Com mittee. Other committee chair and member appointments will be confirmed at May Council. Members interested in serving on a BPS com mittee should submit the volunteer form at www.biophysics.org/about-bps/governance/ committees. Chakrapani and Yip joined Council to share feedback about the previous few days at the Annual Meeting. Speaker cancellations left gaps in several platform sessions. We dis cussed ideas for replacement speakers and will work with chairs and staff to identify a solution that will maximize speaking opportunities at future meetings. We closed New Council with a discussion of the “Emergency Town Hall” and ideas for sup porting members after the meeting. As noted above, we have built out a section on the BPS website with the resources from the town hall and opportunities for members to get in volved and to share their stories and concerns. Throughout Council, we reaffirmed that BPS remains committed to our values: diversity of many kinds is the core of our identity and is our key strength that fosters scientific excellence, as shared in this column in the March issue of BPS Bulletin . Overall, the Council meetings at the Annual Meeting were engaging and productive. The Annual Meeting itself was exciting and inspir ing. We loved seeing everyone who attended and missed those who could not come. In these challenging times, our BPS community is more important than ever. If you have suggestions for ways we can support you or ideas you would like to share, please reach out to us at any time at thompson@chem.umass.edu or jpesanelli@biophysics.org.

both longstanding and emerging areas into the exciting science presented at our Annual Meeting! BPS Secretary Teresa Giraldez followed the An nual Meeting topic with updates on Subgroups, including the status of the Subgroup Task Force activities. Results from the recent all-member survey on Subgroups will be reviewed by the Task Force and then shared at May Council. She also informed Council that the leaders of the Multiscale Genome Organization Subgroup were notified before the meeting that their Subgroup will be dissolved after the Annual Meeting due to the inability to maintain the required number of Regular and Early Career members established by the BPS bylaws. New Council convened on Wednesday, Feb ruary 19, and began with everyone sharing something about the meeting that was exciting for them. Several people commented on the outstanding lectures they attended, as well as the enthusiastic engagement of the students and early career attendees throughout the meeting. Then our first topic was the effort to support the BPS mission and our members in the face of everything that is going on around the world. We discussed the importance of telling stories that convey the impact of science and that humanize scientists, and ideas for incorporating this theme into BPS activities for the upcoming year and into programming for the 2026 Annual Meeting. Padmini Rangamani , Jörg Enderlein , and Vasanthi Jayaraman , the Editors-in-Chief (EICs) of BPS’s three journals, along with William Wimley , Publi cations Chair, attended Council to report on our publishing program. Although all three journals experienced an increase in submissions in 2024, all the EICs continuously seek opportuni ties to improve the journals, grow submissions, and ensure that BPS publications are publishing high-quality research from our members and the biophysics community. Wimley highlighted how amazing and proactive the EICs are and flagged that Enderlein’s term is ending, with a search for his replacement currently underway. Council approved the addition of a new Associ ate Editor for Special Issues position for

Silvia Cavagnero Margaret Cheung Theanne Griffith Taviare Hawkins Ryota Iino Anne Kenworthy

Emmanuel Margeat Elizabeth Rhoades Renae Ryan Tamar Schlick Jing Xu Biophysical Journal Vasanthi Jayaraman Editor-in-Chief The Biophysicist Padmini Rangamani Editor-in-Chief Biophysical Reports

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 © 2025 by the Biophysical Society. Darren Early Laura Phelan

— Lynmarie K. Thompson , President — Jennifer Pesanelli , Executive Officer

Printed in the United States of America. All rights reserved.

April 2025

3

THE NEWSLETTER OF THE BIOPHYSICAL SOCIETY