Biophysical Society Bulletin | July/August 2020

Public Affairs

States and who have ties to universities affiliated with China’s military—a policy that would affect some 3,000 students. The goal is to limit foreign involvement in research, as investi- gations into ties between US and Chinese researchers have led a number of scientists in recent years to lose their jobs or to be arrested. Senators Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) introduced the SECURE CAMPUS Act, which would ban visas for Chinese nationals to come to the United States and complete graduate programs or postdocs in STEM fields. Administration officials and lawmakers say the move is to shore up national security threats, but university professors argue such cancellations represent targeted discrimination. The Adminis- tration is also considering restrictions on the Optional Practical Training program, which lets international students who are in the United States on student visas stay for one year after they grad- uate to work in the field they studied. China’s Thousand Talents initiative, which has provided funding for American researchers, is also a program government officials are urging universities to keep a close eye on or even cut ties with. University officials note that banning Chinese nationals who participate in research could slow scientific progress and result in untoward economic consequences. The 360,000 Chinese nationals who come to the United States for graduate studies or postdocs contribute about $14 billion to academic institutions, largely from tuition and other fees. As part of our goal to foster a global biophysics community, we asked the BPS Ambassadors to share the issues, con- cerns, and activities of the biophysical community in their country. As scientific research continues to find a way to progress under varying COVID-19 restrictions, maintaining an open and ongoing dialogue within the community is essential. These articles were written in June. Nuno C. Santos , BPS Ambassor, Portugal Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa From the middle of March until the 5th of May, the Insti- tute of Molecular Medicine (iMM) was open just for doing COVID-19 diagnosis to support our national services (Portu- gal being among the countries with the highest number of tests normalized for the size of the population), animal and cell culture maintenance, virus isolation on BSL3, and a few more SARS-CoV-2-related research activities. All the class- es at the Medical School of the University of Lisbon, where I teach, were shifted to videoconference and other web-based resources. My wife, our two sons, and I were all working and having classes from home, often with the four of us simulta- neously having four different videoconferences, in four differ- ent rooms, and on four different computers. Unfortunately, Around theWorld BPS Ambassador Updates

things are not so easy for those who cannot work from home or those who do not have computers and rooms for everyone in the family. On the 6th of May, iMM reopened for all research activities, with a maximum of one-third of the people in the building, a maximum number of people per room and lab, and manda- tory use of face masks. In each research group, we organized ourselves to work in shifts, including nights and weekends, taking into consideration the childcare limitations that some parents were facing. At the beginning of last week [June], the limit was increased to half of the people in the building, instead of one-third, maintaining the same maximum num- ber of people per room and lab, and mandatory use of face masks. Things are reopening smoothly and, so far, no one got infected! Everyone is undergoing SARS-CoV-2 infection and serologic testing. COVID-19 tests for the national services did not stop. We are now hiring new staff to do that work, as the researchers that were doing the tests are going back to their original projects. The academic year at the University of Lisbon is approaching its end and has continued all the classes and final evaluations online. Seminars and lab meetings are also still being held online. At the national level, only students in grades 11 and 12 went back to school, in order for all students to be able to prepare for university application, regardless of their home conditions. They are doing so wearing masks, are organized by shifts, and are in rooms re-arranged to maximize the distance between students. Nurseries, kindergartens, and preschools also reopened, mostly to allow parents to return to their jobs (in Portugal, both parents usually have full-time jobs). However, students from grades 1 to 10 are still having all their classes online. Children from grades 1 to 9 are also receiving daily support classes through national TV. In a country with a population of 10.3 million, Portugal has a total of 34,885 cases of COVID-19 at the time of this writing, which led to 1,485 deaths. In the last 24 hours we had 6 new deaths and 192 new cases of infection. Of course, I would like it if all these numbers were lower but, compared with several other countries worldwide, and considering the abnormally high average age of the Portuguese population, we know that it could have been considerably worse. Contributing to this less negative scenario was the fact that scientists from differ- ent disciplines, from medicine and biology, to mathematics and social sciences, had a unique opportunity to share their message. Contrary to other countries, both politicians and most of the general public made their political and personal decisions on how to deal with the pandemic based on that scientific information. That made all the difference. John Baezinger , BPS Ambassador, Canada University of Ottawa Throughout my years of being a member and past President of the Biophysical Society of Canada (BSC), I have focused on promoting the next generation of biophysicists and advocat- ing for scientific research. As with most scientific endeavors, the activities of the BSC and its members have slowed dra- matically in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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