Biophysical Society Bulletin | July/August 2019

Biophysicist in Profile

Baiz’s colleague Martin Zanni , University of Wisconsin-Mad- ison, is familiar with his work primarily as an editor of The Journal of Physical Chemistry , and admires his insight. “Carlos Baiz is a very talented and creative biospectroscopist. His research draws from a range of experimental and theoretical techniques and the depth of the insights reflected in his work is remarkable,” Zanni shares. “Although he is my junior by a decade, he has impacted my thinking on a range of topics, from the classification of protein structural dynamics to infra- red microscopy. He is applying new infrared spectroscopies to gain insights into vexing problems in biophysics.”

Recently, his research has been moving towards applying the methods of physical chemistry to investigating complex systems in their native environments. “One emerging area of biophysics is investigating the effects of crowding and heterogeneity, and molecular diversity. For example, plasma membranes contain hundreds of different lipid species,” he explains. “Many of the early experiments used simple bilayers composed of a single lipid species as a mimic of the plasma membrane, but it is becoming evident that heterogeneity plays an important role. I believe, in general, biophysicists are quickly leaving the ‘test tube’ behind and beginning to investi- gate the behavior of molecules in their native environments. I am excited to be part of this emerging area of biophysics.”

Baiz hiking with his wife Sarah in Texas Hill Country.

The most rewarding and challenging aspect of his career is working with students. “New professors are hired because of their training in research—doing experiments, analyzing data, writing papers, etc.—but we receive very little training on how to successfully lead and mentor a diverse group of students,” he says. “Working with students and postdocs of different cultural backgrounds, with different levels of exper- tise, and inspiring everyone to bring their own perspective to the group has also been incredibly rewarding. I am lucky to work with such a talented group of students and postdocs every day.” He shares one of the key pieces of advice he gives to his students and trainees: “I subscribe to the ‘fail often and fail quickly’ philosophy. In science, success often comes after a series of failures, so it is important to learn what things don’t work, in order to find out what works. In this process, it is also important to try new things, take risks, and not give up so easily. It is easy to talk yourself out of doing an experiment, but until you try something, you cannot know for sure wheth- er it will work.” The first members of the Baiz group in 2016 (left to right): Jennifer Flanagan, Sean Eding- ton, and Baiz.

When he is not in the lab, Baiz pursues a variety of hob- bies that keep him busy. “I enjoy being outdoors, hiking and canoeing in the summer. I also compose and mix electronic music on my computer,” he says. “I am interested in history, particularly US military and nuclear history. I also have a small collection of firearms and I enjoy going to the range every once in a while.” His advice to young researchers is to “find something you enjoy doing and pursue it with all your passion. Do not worry about your future. Instead do what you enjoy, and you will be successful as a scientist.”

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July/August 2019

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