Biophysical Society Bulletin | June 2020

President’s Message

NowMore than Ever, your BPS Network is a Valuable Resource

This is the second piece for the BPS Bulletin that I amwriting frommy home office in Albany, New York. Just down the street, Governor Cuomo holds his daily press conferences about the fight against coronavirus. While the news remains bad, there are some glimmers of hope. New

relief packages recently passed by Congress, although some with huge endowments have indicated this help will not be necessary. Postdoctoral fellows gearing up for the academic job market are facing a situation that appears worse even than that following the 2008 crash. I suspect there will be very few openings ad- vertised this season. I have little insight into how the pandemic will affect career opportunities in the private sector, in particular biotech, which is highly relevant to new PhDs and postdocs in biophysics. I suspect that in general the career pipeline will be essentially shut off this year, or reduced to a trickle. Postdoctoral associates will remain where they are, to the extent that support is available. Although I amwriting this from the standpoint of a professor in a US university, I suspect, given the impact of COVID-19 on the world economy, the lack of career prospects for young biophysicists this year will probably be a worldwide phenomenon. During these difficult times, it is important for all of us to rely on our networks of friends and colleagues to help get us through. Indeed, networks are one of the major benefits of scientific societies such as the Biophysical Society. Unfortunately, BPS has had to postpone several Thematic Meetings, which are great venues—along with the Annual Meeting— for science and networking. Although we cannot meet in person for the moment, I encourage you to keep in virtual contact with your scientific communities. Beyond video-conferencing for your group meetings and individually between trainees and PIs, I urge you to organize discussions about recent results in your field with BPS colleagues you know from all over the world. I have been involved in on-line tutorials on the use of analysis software and we have had students, postdocs and PIs (up to 40 in one session) from the United States, Europe, and Asia participate in these incredibly useful sessions. They provide new skills to trainees that will be useful to them now and after this is all over. More locally, my department colleagues and I have regular facul- ty lunch meetings to support each other and trade information. Virtual happy hours are also a good idea. Going forward, we at BPS will work to keep the links between our members strong. Another worrisome trend that appears to be occurring is that men in academia (and probably women with no children at home like yours truly) are using the time in confinement to write papers, and probably grant proposals, while female scientists with children may be taking on most of the childcare and home schooling tasks (See the article at https:/www.thelily.com/wom- en-academics-seem-to-be-submitting-fewer-papers-during- coronavirus-never-seen-anything-like-it-says-one-editor/).

Catherine A. Royer

cases are decreasing daily in New York City and State. This is true in some parts of the country now, and in the absence of much guidance at the federal level, our state and local govern- ments are working to conceive the best path forward to gradual opening up of society. Unfortunately, some state governments have issued orders to reopen, despite a continuing increase in COVID-19 cases. In contrast, in Germany, where Chancellor Merkel (a scientist incidentally) and her government have done a pretty good job in containing the pandemic, small shops and businesses are reopening. In France and Italy, new cases are decreasing fairly steadily, and discussions of how to reopen are ongoing. Cases in Asia remain low, despite a few spikes. This good news is offset by the news that the pandemic is now reaching Africa, where most governments are ill-prepared to handle it. All in all, it appears that we will be impacted by this crisis for quite a while. Even after the direct impacts on our daily lives due to social distancing recede, normalcy will not return for many months or more. The last such pandemic was over 100 years ago, ravaging a world just coming out of a World War that had already killed millions. The destruction and upheaval linked to WWI likely contributed to the spread and lethality of the epidemic. This time, the virus has struck a world in political dis- array, with a gaping leadership void in most countries, the United States being the most egregious example. As I noted in my last letter, those of us in academia are relative- ly protected compared to many in more precarious positions, either due to exposure to the virus, such as health care workers or workers in sectors deemed essential, or because of loss of revenue as businesses have closed. Nonetheless, as time has gone on, the realization of the sheer magnitude of the crisis is sinking in, as we in the research and higher education commu- nity face more and more changes and uncertainty. Here in the United States, universities are experiencing massive shortfalls in income, resulting in furloughing many employees considered non-essential. In some cases, stipends have been decreased, and support for teaching assistants for the fall semester is being cut back as incoming classes for the fall semester are predicted to be significantly smaller than usual. Department Chairs and PIs are scrambling to find support for their graduate students. Universities will receive some emergency funds from the federal

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