Biophysical Society Bulletin | January 2026

Biophysicist in Profile

This encounter sparked what would become a primary re search focus: using molecular dynamics simulations to explain and predict the structural and physical basis of charge leakage and gating behavior in this channel. She maintains a second ary interest in oxygen transport, particularly factors affecting diffusion rates through tissue and subcellular oxygen avail ability. Working at a primarily undergraduate institution presents unique challenges. Pias describes “managing the complexity of my job” as one of her biggest career challenges. Faculty at small institutions like New Mexico Tech carry large service loads while teaching and conducting research. “We are en couraged and expected to develop robust, externally funded research programs involving both graduate and undergradu ate students, while also teaching several courses per year and fulfilling significant service and leadership responsibilities,” she notes. Despite these demands, Pias has found profound rewards in her work. “I truly enjoy advising students and watching them grow, both professionally and personally,” she says. Beyond mentorship, she finds fulfillment in “tackling difficult scientific puzzles and persisting with them until the pieces begin to fall into place. The joy of insight and discovery is intoxicating.” Pias has found an intellectual and social home in the Biophys ical Society, which she describes as “an unusually welcoming professional and social environment. I feel appreciated as an individual and as a scientist.” She has become involved in the leadership of the Bioenergetics, Mitochondria, and Metab olism Subgroup as well as the Committee for Professional Opportunities for Women. What draws her to biophysics is its inherently collaborative nature. “I love that biophysics brings together people with distinct and complementary perspectives and areas of train ing,” she explains. “I can engage in dialogue with biologists, physicists, chemists, and others. The strength of the Society is in its range and variety of experience and perspective.”

This appreciation for interdisciplinarity stems naturally from her own cross-disciplinary training. She shares that the Soci ety “has helped shape my identity as a biophysicist—in ad dition to being a chemist/biochemist. The broader and more cross-cutting orientation of biophysics suits my perspective as a scholar trained across several fields.” For young scientists entering the field, Pias emphasizes the importance of community and intellectual humility. She rec ommends attending Biophysical Society meetings regularly and finding connections within Subgroups or affinity groups. “The social connections are just as important as the scientific ones, and in fact they can go hand in hand,” she advises. Her guidance reflects hard-won wisdom about interdisci plinary work. She advises, “Don’t be afraid to be wrong, but be aware and open about this possibility. (Be vulnerable and also humble.) Acknowledge that people with different train ing will have different, and also valid, interpretations and assumptions.” She notes that these diverse perspectives “do not negate or necessarily contradict your own perspective but may require effort to understand—and to recognize in what sense they are valid and where the gaps are.” Looking to the future, Pias sees biophysics moving toward bridging the scale gap between organ-level physiology and molecular-level structure and function. Her own work con tinues to focus on molecular processes modulating cell death and survival, and she intends to persist “until the field breaks through barriers of explanation, prediction, and imagination.” When she’s not working, Pias spends time with her two children—one just starting college, the other beginning high school—and enjoys reading historical fiction, listening to podcasts, studying languages, and learning martial arts. If she weren’t a biophysicist, she thinks she would be a professor of comparative religion or a psychologist, reflecting her enduring fascination with “historical perspectives on human behavior” and “contemporary study of motivations and causes underly ing human emotions and behavior.”

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January 2026

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