Biophysical Society Bulletin | December 2023

President’s Message

Updates from Fall Council As is currently our annual practice, Fall Council met virtually November 8–10 to address a packed agenda. We began with an update from the 2024 Annual Meeting Program

ing a deficit for 2023, it will be much smaller due to positive returns from the 2023 Annual Meeting. Revenue from mem bership is recovering more slowly, but we are optimistic. We put forth a negative budget again for 2024 but continue to see opportunities for improvement without adversely impact ing any programs. We remain heavily dependent on revenues from Biophysical Journal , which continue to be strong. After approving the 2024 budget, Council considered a pro posal from Cell Press to continue publishing Biophysical Journal and Biophysical Reports in partnership with BPS. Council found the proposal favorable as it offered some financial stability for our largest revenue stream while allowing for potential growth and the opportunity to focus on increasing the quality and impact of the journals. A roster of new editorial board appointments for Biophysical Journal sparked a discussion about the need to keep improving diversity by including international members. One-third of BPS members live and work outside of the United States, and we’ve been very diligent about ensuring that representation is reflected in leadership, across Annual Meeting speakers, on editorial boards, etc. However, Council requested more de tailed information be provided to ensure that we are consid ering members from all countries where BPS members reside every time there is an opportunity to create a roster, update a slate, invite new speakers, and so forth. This conversation flowed into a discussion led by Nominating Committee Chair Margaret Cheung . The 2023 Nominating Committee is still working on the slate for the 2024 election and sought Council feedback on axes of diversity and slate composition. One of the highlights of Fall Council was reviewing a proposal from the New Awards Task Force. The Task Force, comprised of Villa, Taekjip Ha , Patricia Bassereau , Linda Columbus , Susan Marqusee , David Piston , and Gail Robertson , put forth four new awards aimed at honoring BPS members who are doing outstanding work in computational biophysics, who are ex celling as faculty at primarily undergraduate institutions, who are making noteworthy contributions in early independent careers, and who have shown excellence in PhD dissertation work. Council approved the proposal, and we look forward to sharing the details with you in the next newsletter and invit ing nominations for these new awards beginning in January 2024. After some final updates on BPS activities, a call for additional business prompted the initiation of a Sustainable Future Task Force. The mandate of this group will include exploring steps that we should take to empower our members who would like to use their skills and expertise toward research related to a sustainable future and exploring steps that we should

Co-Chairs, Elizabeth Villa and Ibrahim Cissé , who are very excited about the changes for the 2024 meeting. Of the more than 400 submissions for the new Symp Select talks, they were able to program 19 speakers

Taekjip Ha

in the symposia and 4 additional speakers to give Workshop Select talks. Other changes included scheduling 192 flash talks into the 64 platform sessions, and approximately 240 of the 450 platform presenters accepted the invitation to also present a poster. Cissé, Villa, and BPS staff will share lessons learned from the implementation of these changes to improve the processes for 2025, but everyone is eager to see the initial outcomes in Philadelphia. Sudha Chakrapani also joined the call to report that she and her 2025 Annual Meeting Program Co-Chair Christopher Yip have program development for the next meeting well under way and that many of their symposium topics resulted from the call for member suggestions. President-Elect Gabriela Popescu shared that Eric Gouaux of the Vollum Institute and Oregon Health Science University will be the BPS Lecturer in 2025. President-Elect-Elect Lynmarie Thompson announced that Ariane Briegel of Leiden University and Ilya Levental of the University of Virgina will be the 2026 Annual Meeting Pro gram Chairs. A vital component of the Annual Meeting and indeed BPS itself, Subgroups, were the next discussion item for Council. Council reviewed the Subgroup report card detailing perfor mance in areas such as programming, finances, and member ship. Secretary Teresa Giraldez explained the updated rubric behind the scoring, and Council suggested some adjustments. It was noted that programming for Subgroup Saturday is coming together very well for most Subgroups and 12 of 18 are planning dinners after their symposia in Philadelphia. Treasurer Samantha Harris gave an overview of Society finances and Director of Finance and Operations Harris Povich walked Council through the 2023 projections and the 2024 budget. As has been shared with membership in previous columns, BPS depends on three main sources of revenue for financing our programs and operations: the Annual Meeting, membership dues, and Biophysical Journal . The Annual Meet ing was held at a loss in 2021 and 2022 due to the pandemic, and revenue from membership dues was down over the same period, resulting in a deficit both years. While we are project

December 2023

2

THE NEWSLETTER OF THE BIOPHYSICAL SOCIETY