Biophysical Society Bulletin | January 2025

Communities

Sally Pias Committee for Professional Opportunities for Women (CPOW)

Sally Pias

Is this your first volunteer position for BPS? If not, what other positions have you held? Being a member of the Committee for Professional Opportu nities for Women (CPOW) is my first formal volunteer position with BPS. Informally, I have consistently participated in annual Subgroup business meetings, especially within the Bioenerget ics, Mitochondria, and Metabolism Subgroup. I have also served as a mentor to three students during the Annual Meeting, as part of the recently established One-on-One with a Mentor program. Why do you volunteer? I volunteer because our participation and leadership is essential to the ongoing health of the biophysics community. Volun teering also contributes to my sense of belonging within the community. Even though the Society has a large number of members, I find that I have something valuable to offer, based on my own experience and vision. It is a privilege to be part of sustaining and growing the Society. I especially enjoy contrib uting to the welcoming environment and helping to create pathways for young people. What has been a highlight from your volunteer experience? Last year, I had the pleasure of leading CPOW’s annual PI to-PI Mixer at the Philadelphia Annual Meeting. It was great interacting with a diverse group of members—talking about science and teaching and funding, as well as making a “small world” connection with the previous mentor of one of my current faculty colleagues. As a member of CPOW, I also get to participate in travel award decisions. I have been impressed to see the quality of the applications and the enthusiasm of young scientists about having an opportunity to participate in the Annual Meeting. Finally, I have greatly enjoyed my interac tions with student “mentees” through the One-on-One with a Mentor program. We have met one another for lunch or dinner, discussing career opportunities and (sometimes) self-doubts,

then have met up again to talk science in front of the student’s poster or after their platform presentation. These interactions are probably as meaningful for me as they are for the students. Do you have advice for others who might be thinking about volunteering? My advice would be to volunteer! It’s easy to get involved, and you are needed. Reach out to someone who serves on a com mittee or email the Society’s administrative office to find out how to volunteer. In addition, I highly recommend participating in one of the smaller Subgroup meetings held on Subgroup Saturday during the Annual Meeting. To get more involved, you should stay for the business meeting at the end—and feel free to speak up! The Subgroups are always looking to engage more members and to bring in new ideas. When not volunteering for BPS, what do you work on? When not volunteering for BPS, I am steeped in my multifac eted role as a faculty member at New Mexico Tech. We are a highly research-active and also education-focused campus. I do a lot of mentoring and teaching, as well as service to the institution and to the broader scientific community. I lead a small research team of graduate and undergraduate students in studying metabolically significant membrane transport processes, using molecular dynamics simulations. I am espe cially interested in the gating mechanism of a mitochondrial “leak channel” residing in ATP synthase, as well as in diffusive oxygen transport. Last summer, I hosted a small and highly interactive interna tional meeting on the New Mexico Tech campus. It turned out to be a great venue, and I hope in the near future to host a subset of the biophysics community for a themed meeting. On a personal note, I treasure time spent with my two teenagers or curled up with a book (most recently historical fiction by Ken Follett ). I also have a knack for languages and have studied about eight of them so far. The Biophysical Society provides many opportunities for members to get involved and give back to the biophysics community. To learn more about the different opportunities, please visit www.biophysics.org/get-involved.

Get Involved.

January 2025

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