Biophysical Society Bulletin | November 2023

Annual Meeting

Speakers: Anima Anandkumar , California Institute of Technology, USA AI Enabling Science: From Generative AI to Neural Operators Rosana Collepardo-Guevara , Cambridge University, United Kingdom How Do Proteins Regulate the Liquid-like Organization of Chromatin? Kresten Lindorff-Larsen , University of Copenhagen, Denmark Validating Biophysical Experiments using Simulations Guilia Palermo , University of California, Riverside, USA Dynamics and Mechanisms of CRISPR-Cas9 through the Lens of Computational Methods Early Career Award Talk: Glenn Hocky , New York University, USA Proteins Taking Their Time Under Pressure Mid-Career Award Talk: Lynn Kamerlin , Georgia Tech, USA Conformational Dynamics and the Emergence of New Enzymes invited to McMaster University to give a talk and a class lecture, respectively. Richard and Raquel were wonderful hosts and invited us to their home for hors d’oeuvres. The subsequent dinner was excellent with many of their colleagues attend ing. Richard excelled at collaborating and working with many diverse techniques. He asked excellent scientific questions and challenged his collaborators to find the answers.” The impact of Richard’s work was celebrated in July 2022 at the Richard Epand Symposium: Molecular Events at the Membrane Interface event that was held at McMaster University, where he worked for almost 50 years. You can also learn more about his amazing career in his own words in “The scientific adven tures of Richard Epand,” an essay he published earlier this year in Biophysical Chemistry following the symposium. Richard is survived by his wife of 58 years, Raquel, and a son, Andrew. He was totally dedicated to his family. He was a beloved father to his sons, who was deeply affected by the untimely death of his younger son Victor in 2021. Of a humble and agreeable nature, he was a loyal friend, who kept many friendships from childhood onwards. Besides science, his other passions were cycling or walking his city’s trails, but he especially enjoyed hiking in the mountains with friends when he had the chance. Richard read the papers daily and was well informed about world affairs. He loved attending concerts, movies, and plays and enjoyed sharing gourmet meals with those closest to him. Richard will be deeply missed by his family, friends, and colleagues.

Katarzyna Tych , University of Groningen, Netherlands Single-Molecule Enzymology using the Optical Tweezers Fredrik Westerlund , Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden Nanofluidics for Analyzing DNA-Protein Interactions on the Single DNA Molecule Level Mark Williams , Northeastern University, USA DNA Condensation by HIV-1 Nucleocapsid Protein Regulates Cap sid Uncoating and Viral Replication Jie Xiao , Johns Hopkins University, USA Enzyme Action Movies by Single-Molecule Tracking in Live Cells Theory and Computation Subgroup Chair: Rommie E. Amaro , University of California, San Diego, USA

In Memoriam

Richard M. Epand Richard M. Epand (1937–2023), Professor Emeritus in the De partment of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences at McMaster University, passed away on July 12. Richard was a long-time mem ber of the Membrane Structure and Function (MSAF) Subgroup and served as Subgroup Chair in 2001. He was a BPS Fellow, one of the inaugural Fellows of the

Richard M. Epand

Biophysical Society of Canada, and the recipient of many other recognitions throughout his career, including the Avanti Lipids Award in 1999. Richard was an outstanding biophysicist whose work focused on understanding the role that membrane properties had in af fecting biological function. The breadth of his work spans from non-lamellar lipid phases to peptide-lipid interactions to the role of curvature in determining fusion rates. Over the course of his 60-year career, he published almost 700 articles and his work received more than 25,000 citations according to the Web of Science. Richard published many of these articles with colleagues in the MSAF subgroup. Richard and his wife, Raquel Epand , were regular attendees at the Biophysical Society Annual Meetings and gracious hosts to their colleagues who visited them at McMaster University. Stephanie Tristram-Nagle shared, “John [Nagle] and I were both

November 2023

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