Biophysical Society Bulletin | September 2023

Biophysicist in Profile

Officers President Taekjip Ha President-Elect Gabriela Popescu Past-President Gail Robertson Secretary Teresa Giraldez Treasurer Samantha Harris Council Patricia Bassereau Margaret Cheung Henry Colecraft Martin Gruebele Kumiko Hayashi Syma Khalid Susan Marqusee Emmanuel Margeat Elizabeth Rhoades

As a new principal investigator, she has used lessons learned from her earlier challenges to inform how she supports her own trainees. “I feel like for some of us, when we are young, we dream of running our own labs not only to do cool science, but also to create the envi ronments we wish we had seen (or did see!) when we were training. For me, I felt there were several places my journey to faculty could have been less challenging if the support I received was different,” Starbird shares. “For example, I often speak on social media about the difficul ties I encountered with reimbursement culture in academia. As someone from a low-socioeconomic-status background and with children, I went to only one major confer ence in graduate school despite having inde pendent funding to support it, because I could not afford to wait two months for reimburse ment. Not only do I love interacting with stu dents because of their excitement and curiosity for science, but because I can work with them to create a scientific environment that is less about competition and more about enjoying the process of scientific discovery without unrea sonable hurdles.” Starbird believes that going forward, as bio physical methods become more approachable with technological advances, the average biophysicist will become less specialized. “We are seeing this now, with people like me who were trained in one major method (i.e., crystal lography) who are now employing other major techniques, such as cryo-electron microsco py and single-molecule tracking. I think the

biophysics field will continue to advance such that the average biophysicist feels increas ingly capable of using various techniques to answer their biophysical questions,” she says. “I also hope biophysics continues to become increasingly diverse. I remember my first major biophysical conference and being struck by how few people within a very large and thriving community looked like me. Now, when you go to the Biophysical Society meetings, there are several diverse interest groups, and you can go to special sessions such as the JUST-B poster session. Outside of research, helping to inspire increased diversity is what I hope to contribute to science. In my wildest dream, my future re search wins me lots of notice and awards such that my picture is in future textbooks and helps to redefine what a scientist looks like.” Her advice to those just starting their careers in biophysics is to have fun. “I think many of us are aware that biophysics can sometimes seem daunting and a bit ‘old school’ at first, but there really is so much that biophysicists do, and there are constantly new advances being made. I’m always amazed at the conferences and when reading journals to see so many of my peers pushing the boundaries of what we considered possible,” Starbird tells BPS Bulletin . “In vivo crystallography, atomic resolution elec tron microscopy, and highly accurate protein structure prediction: these were considered nearly impossible dreams just 20 years ago. Imagine what we can accomplish going forward if we give ourselves the license to have fun, to be creative, and to push boundaries!”

Kandice Tanner Valeria Vasquez Jing Xu Biophysical Journal Vasanthi Jayaraman Editor-in-Chief The Biophysicist Padmini Rangamani Editor-in-Chief Biophysical Reports

Jörg Enderlein Editor-in-Chief

Society Office Jennifer Pesanelli Executive Officer Newsletter

Executive Editor Jennifer Pesanelli Managing Editor John Long Production Ray Wolfe Meredith Zimmerman Proofreader/Copy Editor The Biophysical Society Newsletter (ISSN 0006-3495) is published eleven times per year, January-December, by the Biophysical Society, 5515 Security Lane, Suite 1110, Rockville, Maryland 20852. Distributed to USA members and other countries at no cost. Cana dian GST No. 898477062. Postmaster: Send address changes to Biophysical Society, 5515 Security Lane, Suite 1110, Rockville, MD 20852. Copyright © 2023 by the Biophysical Society. Darren Early Laura Phelan

JUST-B Seminar Series Presentation! September 12, 2:00 pm USA Eastern Speakers: Raquel Short , UCSD and Juliet Obi , UMBC Pivot Power: How to Change Fields, Careers, Organizations, or Labs October 17, 2:00 pm USA Eastern Presented by Alaina G. Levine

Register Today at biophysics.org/webinars

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September 2023

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