BIOPHYSICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER
15
AUGUST
2014
Subgroups
Mechanobiology
The Mechanobiology Subgroup held its 2
nd
an-
nual meeting on the Saturday before the 2014
Biophysical Society Annual Meeting in San
Francisco. It is truly an exciting time for mecha-
nobiology, with all sorts of new ways to physically
manipulate and measure biosystems in combina-
tion (or not!) with many approaches from mo-
lecular biology.
Linda Kenney
, founding Chair
of the Mechanobiology Subgroup, energized the
meeting by organizing an outstanding and diverse
afternoon session. Talks ranged from the cell and
molecular scale to large organisms, and focused
on forces, stresses, and kinematics in both experi-
mental and theoretical studies.
Alex Dunn
helped
raise funds for refreshments from several sponsors
– thanks! The Subgroup meeting concluded with
a small quorum of subgroup members discussing
plans for the 3
rd
annual meeting on the Satur-
day before the 2015 Biophysical Society Annual
Meeting in Baltimore.
Dennis Discher
will serve
as the Subgroup Chair for the 2015 Biophysical
Society Annual Meeting in Baltimore. Suggestions
for possible topics, speakers, and sponsors are all
welcome (please email:
).
G.V. ‘Shiva’ Shivashankar
will serve as the Sub-
group Chair for the 2016 Meeting. We encourage
all Society members to come to these Mechano-
biology Subgroup meetings, whether you work in
the topic or not, and please mention the subgroup
to colleagues who work on any aspect of mecha-
nobiology. Come participate, be inquisitive, and
consider joining the Biophysical Society’s latest
dynamic Subgroup.
—
Dennis E. Discher
, Subgroup Chair
BIV
Students and Postdocs:
Put Your Artistic Skills to Good Use!
Biopolymers In Vivo Logo Contest
Looking for opportunities to express your creativ-
ity this summer and fall? The Biopolymers in vivo
(BIV) Subgroup is proud to announce a new Logo
Contest. The purpose of the logo is to create a
catchy design that relates, in a direct or abstract
way, to the BIV subgroup core goals: understand-
ing the structure and function of biomolecules in
the context of the living cell and developing novel
cutting-edge techniques to facilitate this aim.
The
designer of the winning logo will receive $350
in cash, along with a free t-shirt and dinner
with the BIV Subgroup after the 2015 Balti-
more symposium
. Eligibility is extended to all
members of the Biophysical Society who are early-
career scientists, i.e., students and postdocs. The
winning design will be selected by the current BIV
officers and student representatives (see below).
The BIV logo will appear in the BPS Newslet-
ter, in presentation slides, and on tee shirts to be
sold at the 2015 Annual Meeting. The deadline
for submitting your logo design is November 30,
2014. Entries should be sent by email attach-
ment to
Contest rules and
further details are available on the BIV Subgroup
webpage
/
Subgroups/BIV-Logo-Contest-Rules-2015_v4.pdf
).
Please be sure to share this opportunity with your
creative colleagues!
We are also excited to announce that the officers
of the BIV Subgroup recently elected two early-
career representatives to enhance the subgroup’s
outreach and responsiveness to younger scientists.
Our first representative,
Anna Simon
,
is a gradu-
ate student in the laboratory of
Kevin Plaxco
, UC
Santa Barbara. Anna received her BS degree in bi-
ological engineering from MIT.
Maxim Prigozhin
,
our second representative, is a postdoctoral fellow
in the laboratory of
Steven Chu
, Stanford Univer-
sity. Max received his PhD in chemical physics
under the direction of
Martin Gruebele
,
University
of Illinois. We welcome Max and Anna on board
and we look forward to their contributions to
shape the BIV subgroup and help us make future
business decisions.
—
Daryl Eggers
, BIV Member-at-Large
