Biophysical Society Bulletin | June 2024

Communities

Clarissa Durie Committee for Professional Opportunities for Women (CPOW)

Clarissa Durie

Is this your first volunteer position for BPS? If not, what other positions have you held? Yes, this is my first volunteer position for BPS, and feels like a natural progression of my professional values and commit ments to our scientific community. Since starting my job as an assistant professor, I’ve served as a volunteer in various ca pacities, including with the Gibbs Conference on Biothermody namics. Throughout each stage of my scientific career, I have volunteered with programs and organizations that support women and underrepresented groups in STEM. Why do you volunteer? It’s important to me to “pay forward” the tremendous mento ring and support I have received. I am very fortunate to have had excellent PhD and postdoctoral advisors/mentors ( Aaron Lucius at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Mel anie Ohi at the University of Michigan, respectively). I’ve also benefited from the support of countless unofficial mentors and more senior colleagues, as well as peers. I want more ear ly career scientists, especially women and underrepresented minorities who face additional systemic challenges, to receive this kind of support, too, and to remain in STEM and keep pro gressing up their own career trajectories. Volunteering with the Committee for Professional Opportunities for Women (CPOW) is one way I can help to contribute to that. There’s also the fact that the CPOW chair is a long-time scientific role model of mine, Karen Fleming ! What has been a highlight from your volunteer experience? I was surprised to find that the CPOW meeting during the BPS Annual Meeting was a blast! I don’t usually look forward to committee meetings and, since this was my first time,

I didn’t know what to expect. I was able to meet so many outstanding scientists whose work I already admired and learn about others whose work I wasn’t yet familiar with. For example, just a couple days before I was listening to Vera Moiseenva-Bell ’s talk during the Cryo-EM Subgroup session, then we’re in the meeting talking about shared scientific and community interests. This was in addition to the opportunity to be part of the process of developing strategies for profes sional opportunities for women (as suggested by the commit tee’s name)! Do you have advice for others who might be thinking about volunteering? Go for it! Another benefit of volunteering is that it gives you some concrete touch points in what, for me, can sometimes be an overwhelming Annual Meeting. BPS has so much great programming going on during the meetings, it can be hard to figure out what to prioritize, and it can be difficult to meet colleagues and grow your professional network organically. Being part of a committee helps with both of those challeng es. You go to the meeting with some defined responsibilities and calendar events and have a smaller subset of scientists with similar interests who you can get to know better through shared goals. When not volunteering for BPS, what do you work on? I started my research group at the University of Missouri about two years ago. I am so proud of my growing team, hard at work bringing biophysical methods including cryo-EM and enzyme kinetics to scientific questions that have long been studied by cell-based assays. Since I’m still fairly new to the area, I’ve been trying out various hobbies including a rowing gym, trivia, adult ballet classes, and the occasional karaoke night! BPS On-Demand Resources Explore a library of on-demand webinars and videos with exclusive content to boost your knowledge and skills. biophysics.org/ ondemand

June 2024

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