Biophysical Society Bulletin | January 2021

Public Affairs

What led you to apply for the BPS Ambassador Program? I always sensed that our biophysicists in this country, in- cluding myself, are somehow disconnected from the Bio- physical Society as the nucleating component. This hampers collaborations and networking; it is my hope that by being an Ambassador I can work to better align the international biophysics community with the Biophysical Society. What are your Ambassador Program goals? As implied in my reasons for applying for the BPS Ambassa- dor Program, my goal is to build bridges between Argentine biophysics and BPS, expand BPS’s international reach and resources, and identify opportunities of mutual benefit. Tell us something fun about yourself? If not a scientist, I would have been a musician or a cook; I was clearly not cut out for real jobs! Irep Gozen Norway What do you do professionally? of the Soft Materials Laboratory at the Center for Molecular Medicine in Norway. My research area is bionanoscience, with a special focus on surfactant membranes. What led you to apply for the BPS Ambassador Program? I became a member of the Biophysical Society in 2010 during my PhD studies, and have been attending the annual BPS meetings since then. At the meetings I receive encourage- ment and critical feedback, and build a network with bio- physics experts from all over the world. I want to strengthen biophysics in the Nordic Region, bring researchers closer together, and visibly promote science in the interest of the biophysics community worldwide. What are your Ambassador Program goals? With support of the BPS Ambassador program I will work towards strengthening the connections between the biophys- ics communities in the United States and the Scandinavian region. I am planning activities and organizing workshops, especially encouraging female scientists in STEM, and on evaluating and commenting on research trends, publishing regularly for audiences of various backgrounds, and establish- ing links to administrative and funding bodies in Norway. Irep Gozen I am a group leader and associate professor at the University of Oslo, and currently head

appearances on various media outlets and school programs to promote science careers. What led you to apply for the BPS Ambassador Program? Being a first-generation PhD and the very first woman college graduate in my family, it took time to discover my destiny in academia. I stumbled upon and was immediately fascinated by biophysical problems in the last year of my PhD studies, while doing polymer physics research in a chemical engineer- ing department. Fast forward 25 years, and now I wish to use my visibility to leverage biophysics as a career path for aspir- ing scientists, and to put biophysical understanding within the reach of science enthusiasts. What are your Ambassador Program goals? I will design advocacy events to channel underrepresented groups interested in biophysics into related career paths; I will promote mentorship activities for the professional devel- opment of those who have already taken these paths. I will initiate organization of thematic meetings focused on phys- ics-based approaches and trans-disciplinary advancements in the field. Expanding on my current outreach efforts, I will engage in development of science curricula using biophysics as a unifying theme. Tell us something fun about yourself? I do some yoga every day, take long walks in the cat-populous streets of Istanbul, and occasional treats of seafood mezes set my mood right. Gonzalo de Prat Gay Argentina What do you do professionally? enzymes. I trained in basic protein science at Cambridge University, UK, which allowed me to tackle my long-term interest. I have long sought to understand viruses from their protein components, interactions, and assembly, and at the same time address fundamental problems of protein science such as folding, intrinsic disorder, nucleic acid recognition, antibody-antigen, and more recently biomolecular conden- sates, in a multidisciplinary manner, going from biophysics to cell culture and infection.  I have been working throughout the years in two important pathogens representative of RNA (syncytial respiratory virus) and DNA (papillomavirus) viruses. I am a career researcher at the Argentine National Science Council, lead a lab at Instituto Leloir, and devote most of my time to research.  Gonzalo de Prat Gay I got a degree in biochemistry at the Univer- sity of Buenos Aires and did my PhD at the same university working on photosynthetic

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