How the BPS Annual Meeting comes together continues to be a mystery for seasoned and new members alike. Questions always arise on how the abstract categories are selected, how platforms and symposia are assembled, or how emerging areas of research are incorporated into the program. No amount of communication can fully describe the process because it has myriad moving parts and because it is constantly evolving. In this column, I aim to answer some of the most frequently asked questions, while I am anticipating with excitement our 69th Annual Meeting, scheduled for February 15–19, 2025, in Los Angeles.
The responsibility for the scientific content of the Annual Meeting rests exclusively with the President, the Council, and the Program Committee. An essential goal is to balance community needs with the physical limitations of space and time! Our most recent Annual Meeting, which was held last February in Philadelphia, featured 24 symposia, 4 workshops, 64 platforms, and more than 3,070 posters. In addition to these much-anticipated scientific sessions, the Annual Meeting has evolved to include career development sessions, committee meetings, panel discussions, and social events, each with important mission-relevant goals. It is always a challenge to fit all this abundant programming into six short days, and sometimes the venue may impose additional limitations. Dorothy Chaconas, our seasoned Director of Meetings and Exhibits, and her team provide an initial scheduling template. This matrix sets upper limits for the number of symposia and workshops we can plan and has remained relatively constant over the past several years. Within this framework, we endeavor to select the most exciting, engaging, and representative topics and speakers!
As the president of BPS, it is my privilege to shape the 2025 Annual Meeting by nominating the BPS Lecturer, the topic for the Presidential Symposium, and the chairs of the Program Committee. I am thrilled to share with you that Eric Gouaux, Vollum Institute at Oregon Health & Science University, has agreed to give the 2025 BPS Lecture. He will demonstrate the power of rigorous biophysical research in revealing the fundamental mechanisms of neurotransmission, and thus helping to alleviate the global burden of neuropsychiatric disorders. Similarly, to draw attention to the critical role biophysics research can play in solving global threats, I selected for the Presidential Symposium the topic of “A Sustainable Future.” Finally, I invited a dynamic duo, Sudha Chakrapani, Case Western Reserve University, and Christopher Yip, University of Toronto, to co-chair the Program Committee. I could not be more grateful that they agreed to take on this daunting task. They have been working tirelessly since last October!
Symposia. The main task of the Program Committee is to select topics and confirm four speakers for each of the Annual Meeting symposia. Their work begins 18 months in advance of the Annual Meeting and follows a relatively structured process. The first order of business is to review the symposium proposals received from BPS members in response to a call that goes out annually around mid-July. For the 2026 meeting, it will be sent July 19. Mark your calendar for this key date! The selection process aims to identify meritorious proposals that cover exciting and diverse areas of investigation that have not been covered in recent meetings. The Committee also reviews prior meeting statistics such as the number of abstracts submitted within each category, session attendance data, and feedback from surveys to ensure that the selected topics accurately reflect member interest. Therefore, by selecting a category under which to submit your abstract this year, you will influence the scientific content of future meetings. In a previous blog, past President David Piston advised on how to choose a category and whether to opt for a platform/poster or poster-only opportunity: www.biophysics.org/blog/how-to-choose-your-abstract-category-for-the-annual-meeting.
The outcome of this initial step is to develop a draft program that includes titles and potential speakers for the 20 regular symposia. This draft is shared with Council for review and is discussed at the Annual Meeting at Saturday Council. I remember that during my 2015–2018 term as councilor, the review of this initial draft was quite granular, and on occasion pointed! Nowadays, the process is much smoother and more collaborative, with the clear goal of selecting exciting topics and speakers that represent the entire breadth of our membership.
Another step is for the program chairs to engage with Subgroup chairs at the Annual Meeting. This collaboration has helped to better integrate regular symposia with Subgroup-organized sessions and has provided a deeper pool of speakers and more targeted topics. Based on input from Council and Subgroup chairs, the program chairs revise the initial draft and present the updated version to Wednesday New Council for approval. Know that program chairs and members of Council always want to hear from you with feedback on past sessions and with suggestions for the future. Stop them in the hallway or send them a brief message! They will appreciate your input.
At this point, one year in advance of the meeting, invitations go out to approved speakers to confirm four speakers for each symposium. A fifth speaker will be chosen as a Symp Select speaker in the fall from the submitted abstracts. If you are a Regular or an Early Career Member, you can select the Symp Select option during abstract submission to be considered automatically for the fifth slot of a symposium. Even if program chairs do not select your abstract for a symposium slot, Council members will consider all remaining applications for an oral presentation when assembling platform sessions (see below).
Workshops. Each year, the Annual Meeting accommodates four to five workshops. Program chairs consider topics and speakers from member-submitted proposals as they do for regular symposia.
In addition to the 20 symposia and 5 workshops, there are 5 named symposia, which have specific programmatic purposes. These are: Best of Biophysical Journal, Future of Biophysics, New and Notable, President’s Symposium, and, new in 2025 as a now recurring special symposium, Black in Biophysics. Speakers for these symposia are selected by the chairs from membership-wide calls for nominations that go out during the summer before the meeting or by consultation with appropriate communities.
Lastly, there are 18 Subgroup-organized symposia, scheduled by rotation on Saturday morning or afternoon of the Annual Meeting. For these, the topics and speakers are selected by Subgroup chairs.
Platforms. In contrast with symposia, where topics and speakers are selected by program chairs and must be approved by Council, platform sessions represent the collaborative effort of members of Council and the Program Committee. The meeting can generally accommodate about 64 platform sessions, and these will reflect proportionally the number of submissions in each abstract category. To form a two-hour platform session in any one category, the total number of submissions for oral/poster plus half the number of submissions for poster-only must be greater to or equal to 30. If this number is greater than 60, the category will include two platform sessions.
Next, the program chairs and some members of Council and the Program Committee, along with members with areas of expertise not already represented, review the abstracts for which authors have selected the oral/poster option and choose seven speakers, two of whom will also chair, per platform session.
Recently, Past President Taekjip Ha described this process and explained new features we introduced in Philadelphia, including Symp Select speakers, five-minute flash talks, and the option for platform speakers to also present a poster: www.biophysics.org/bps-bulletin/who-gets-to-present-at-the-bps-annual-meeting.
Categories. Note that every three years, Council reviews and updates the abstract categories to ensure that the Annual Meeting reflects both ongoing trends and emerging areas of research. If a category receives consistently numerous abstracts, it may be divided into more specific areas to form a new category. Conversely, when a category receives consistently limited numbers of abstracts, it may be merged with an adjacent area. It is always the case that any one abstract fits into several categories. Make sure to review all categories to select the most appropriate for your interest. And contact us with suggestions to improve the fit.
Speakers. Lastly, a frequent question refers to how speakers are selected. Attendees who presented orally in any session of the previous two meetings—whether in a meeting symposium, a Subgroup symposium, or a workshop—are excluded from the list of potential speakers for two years. Platform speakers are excluded from the list for one year. This excluded-speaker rule has been in effect for more than a dozen years and it has been a clear and effective means to increase the diversity of our topics and speakers, to hear from as many members as possible, and to ensure that all meritorious science has access to the microphone. However, cancellations—which lately have increased in frequency—force program chairs to make last-minute substitutions for speakers. I can only imagine the stress that program chairs experience while filling vacant slots at the last minute! Next time you notice a repeat speaker, know they have generously agreed to fill in due to an unexpected cancellation!
I hope this information will help you to better plan for the next meeting. Keep an eye out for calls for proposals, and on the deadline for abstract submission. Please continue to reach out with questions and suggestions. It is your engagement that makes BPS a community.
—Gabriela K. Popescu, President