Biophysical Society Bulletin | May 2024

Biophysics Week

BAU-BPS Student Chapter (Bahcesehir University) As the newly established BAU-BPS Student Chapter, we celebrated our first Biophysics Week at Bahcesehir University Hitmer Labs! We're beyond thankful to our invited speakers,

and the various industries in India. Students gained invaluable perspectives on how to align educational pursuits with the dynamic demands of the biotech sector. Different possible strategies for career advancement were also discussed. A Q&A segment followed the enlightening presentation, pro viding students with the opportunity to address any lingering questions or uncertainties.

Bahar Guntekin and Emel Sokullu , for improving us with their pre sentations. A special shout-out to our supervisor, Serdar Durdagi , for making these invaluable opportu nities possible.

Biophysical Peer Discussion Club During Biophysics Week, the University of Toronto BPS Stu dent Chapter got together for a stimulating peer discussion club. The session was joined online by our close neighbor— the BPS Student Chapter at Wayne State University. In the two-hour session, we delved into topics brought up by the participants, from motor proteins to the noise and fluctua tions of gene expression in individual cells. Everyone espe cially enjoyed Susheel Pangeni (the head of the Wayne State University Student Chapter) telling us about his passion, my osin. His pedagogical segment taught us a great deal about properties and measurement techniques for studying these biomolecular machines, though we can all agree that we grew a deeper appreciation for each other's scientific interests, which is vital going forward considering the diverse constit uents of our student chapter who do very different kinds of research coming from different departments. Invited Talk at COMBIGS As part of the Biophysics Week celebration, the student as sociation COMBIGS (Computational Biology Group at SASTRA University) invited Anirudha Lakshminarasimhan , R&D Director at Laurus Bio, to deliver an insightful talk on “Bridging the Gap between Education and Professional Career (in the Biotech Industry)” on March 23. In his talk, he framed questions that would enable a student to identify their strengths and locate positions in industry. Specifically, he categorized these ques tions into five categories: education, expectations, landscape, qualification, and soft skills. The focus was also on how one question leads to an answer and a further question to fill the gap during the transition. The speaker delved into his expe rience in the industry, followed by discussing emerging fields

Events at BPS Chapters in Africa The BPS Chapters in Africa hosted events every day of Biophysics Week to introduce and share the importance of biophysics research and techniques. The countries invovled included Kenya, Uganda, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria. Events throughout the week included experiments, lab work, class es on understanding biophysics, mentorship, how write a research proposal, current biophysics projects, and a nature walk at Lake Victoria. Students were engaged and enjoyed the weeklong celebrations!

May 2024

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