IUPAB NEWS No
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
INTERNATIONAL UNION for PURE and APPLIED BIOPHYSICS IUPAB NEWS No. 59, December, 2012 Editor: Louise Matheson Email: [email protected] Activities of the INTERNATIONAL UNION for PURE and APPLIED BIOPHYSICS From the Secretary-General: Professor C.G. dos Remedios, Bosch Institute, Anderson Stuart Building F13, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia. Courier address: Room W103 Anderson Stuart Building (F13), Fisher Road, The University of Sydney, 2006, Australia. Telephone: (+61) 2 9351 3209. Facsimile: (+61) 2 9351 6546 Email: [email protected] IUPAB is registered in France according Loi du 1er Juillet 1901-Art. 5, n° ordre 03/000309, n° dossier 00158190 CONTENTS Editor’s Note page 3 Report from the President, page 4 Professor Gordon C.K. Roberts Report from the Secretary-General, page 6 Professor Cris dos Remedios Biophysical Reviews – Report from page 9 Professor Jean Garnier, Editor-in-Chief EBSA joins IUPAB – Report from page 10 Professor Anthony Watts General News: BSC visits Brazil page 12 Progress of a recipient of an IUPAB Young page 13 Scientist Award Women in Science -- page 14 Professor Frances Separovic Obituaries – page 15 Dame Louise Napier Johnson and Professor Ivano Bertini 2 Editor’s Note The coming year will also see the continuation of serious prep- arations for the 2014 IBC to be held in Brisbane. This promises to be a stimulating and exciting Congress in a spectacular location. The photograph below was taken by the Treasurer, Professor Patrick Cozzone, at the planning meeting held at the Brisbane Convention Centre in September. It shows (L – R) Professors Brett Hambly, Convenor, Gordon Roberts, One of the changes in 2012 has IUPAB President, and Glenn King been the updating of the IUPAB who is Joint Program Chair with website. I hope you will agree that Professor Jamie Vandenberg. it is an improvement. The aim is to make it more user-friendly and With best wishes, easier to navigate, as well as more attractive to website visitors. It is Louise Matheson planned to continue this process Editor during 2013. [email protected] 3 President’s Report Gordon Roberts University of Leicester, UK [email protected] Applications of Biophysics is headed by International Biophysics Professor Kuniaki Nagayama, National Congresses Institute for Physiological Sciences, The next Congress will be Okazaki, Japan ([email protected]). held 3rd-7th August 2014 in An initial project of this Task Force will be the Brisbane Convention to assemble a series of short articles and Exhibition Centre, illustrating the real-world applications of Brisbane, Australia. The Biophysics, in fields from medicine to IUPAB Executive met with bionanotechnology, to be made available the organisers in on the IUPAB website. Both Task Force September and were impressed by the leaders would welcome suggestions and facilities in the Convention Centre, by the offers of help. city itself, and by the planning of the Congress. A number of distinguished Education & Capacity Building scientists have already accepted invitations Support for educational activities is second to give plenary lectures. only to the Congress in the priorities of It is currently planned that the Congress IUPAB, and financial support is provided to will be organised around six major themes: allow students to attend Schools and Imaging from Molecules to Organisms;! Workshops, which must have a substantial Photosynthesis/ Bioenergetics; Membrane educational component (see Proteins;!Protein Structure; Single Molecule http://iupab.org/events/sponsorship/). For Biophysics and Spectroscopy; and 2013, support totalling US$38,000 will be Computational Biophysics. provided for the following Schools: It is hoped that Satellite Meetings before or • International Conference: after the Congress will be an important Biomolecular Form and Function; feature; one-day meetings could be held in Bangalore, India, January 8-11, Brisbane, two or more day meetings at 2013. On the occasion of the 50th attractive resorts such as Palm Cove or anniversary of the Ramachandran Heron Island. Anyone with suggestions for diagram. possible Satellite Meetings is urged to • International Workshop and School: contact Professor Brett Hambly Computational and Theoretical ([email protected]) who is the Modelling of Macromolecular Chairman of the Organising Committee. Interactions; Dubna, Russia, June 3- 8, 2013 Task Forces • International Workshop: Biological The two new Task Forces have begun Surface and Interfaces;! Sant Feliu work; the two Task Force leaders have de Guixols, Catalonia, Spain, June been identified and are in the process of 30-July 7, 2013! recruiting members. The Task Force in • International Workshop: Advanced Education & Capacity Building, intended to Image Processing for Cryo-Electron develop our educational activities, is Microscopy;! Beijing, China, July 7- headed by Professor Bill Williams, of 10, 2013 Massey University, New Zealand • International Workshop: ([email protected]). One of the Bionanotechnology – Recent ideas being pursued is the compilation of Advances, near Lisbon, Portugal, an annotated list of links to educationally July 10–12, 2013. To be held as a useful video clips on aspects of biophysics Satellite meeting preceding the available on the web. The Task Force in EBSA Congress in Lisbon. "! ! ! • Latin-American Postgraduate structure to membranes, ion channels and Program of Biophysics Course; Rio receptors – are described, with an de Janeiro, Brazil, October 5-9, emphasis on the integration of the different 2013. Continuing support for a very techniques. An online version is available, successful Pan-Latin-American with extensive cross-referencing through educational programme. hyperlinks; this will be updated regularly. It is hoped that this will be a useful Resources resource for the Biophysics community. Our new journal, Biophysical Reviews, edited by Professor Jean Garnier and ______________________ published by Springer (http://www.springer.com/life+sciences/bioc hemistry+%26+biophysics/journal/12551) has made an excellent start, having published some first-rate reviews. The format of short incisive reviews including free colour figures is an attractive one. It is hoped that in the future this will provide a useful income stream for IUPAB, but its success depends on a steady (and increasing) stream of papers – please consider submitting a review of your area. Encyclopedia At the risk of using this report to publicise my own activities, I would like to draw your attention to the five-volume Encyclopedia of Biophysics (ISBN 978-3-642-16711-9), published by Springer in cooperation with the European Biophysical Societies' Association (EBSA), which I have edited. This examines all fields of modern biophysics and is envisioned both as an easily accessible source of information and as a route into the scientific literature. It includes entries describing both Techniques and Systems. In the Techniques entries, each of the wide range of methods which fall under the heading of Biophysics is explained in detail, together with the value and the limitations of the information each provides. Techniques covered range from diffraction (X-ray, electron and neutron), through a wide range of spectroscopic methods (X- ray, optical, EPR, NMR) to imaging (from electron microscopy to live cell imaging and MRI) and electrophysiology, as well as computational and simulation approaches. In the Systems entries, biophysical approaches to particular biological systems or problems – from protein and nucleic acid #! ! ! Report from the Secretary-General Early in 2013 the Council will be contacted by the local organizing committee headed by Professor Brett Hambly with a view to eliciting input regarding the topics and possible invited speakers for the planned concurrent sessions. Another issue raised was the subject of satellite meetings. If Adhering Body members would like to become involved with presenting a satellite Planning for the 18th IBC: meeting, planning should start The IUPAB Executive now. assembled in Brisbane, Australia on September 3-5 Biophysical Reviews: 2012 to inspect the Brisbane The IUPAB flagship Convention Centre facilities. publication, Biophysical Present were President Reviews, has grown in size Gordon Roberts, Past- but the Editor-in-Chief, Prof. President Kuniaki Nagayama, Jean Garnier urges all President-Elect Zihe Rao, Adhering Bodies, particularly Treasurer Patrick Cozzone, the various national Louise Matheson, and myself. Biophysical Societies, to support Biophysical Reviews The Executive was impressed by promoting this Springer by the quality of the facilities publication. As a matter of and by the professional course, all members of the presentation by the appointed Council are offered member- conference organizer (ASN ship of its Editorial Board, and Conventions). A decision was in return for this privilege they made to book the larger of the are expected to solicit and two venues in the facility with achieve the submission of 2-3 the expectation that the reviews in each calendar year. Congress will attract more than 900 delegates. I refer readers to the Annual Report by the Editor-in-Chief ! "! in this issue of the News. In it that countries, regardless of he refers to the highly their wealth and development, successful Biophysical contain gifted computational Reviews initiative namely the scientists, particularly emerg- production of Special Issues. ing scientists. By providing a Guest editors were the network of “mentors” and by Secretary-General and Prof.