At the time of regular abstract submission, attendees submitting abstracts must indicate the format in which they would prefer to present their abstracts at the Annual Meeting. Abstract submitters must choose one of the following: Platform, Poster, or Member-Organized Session. Each session type may be scheduled Sunday through Wednesday at the meeting.
At the time of late abstract submission, submitted abstracts will be considered for poster only presentation. Posters will be scheduled each day of the meeting Sunday through Wednesday at the meeting.
Platform
Platform presentations will be chosen from among the abstracts submitted that have indicated an interest in being considered for a platform session. Platform sessions are competitive due to demand and space limitations, over 30% of those requesting a speaking slot are selected for platform session presentations. The Program Committee will select eight abstracts to be presented per platform session. Abstracts accepted for platform presentations will be organized into parallel sessions, running concurrently with symposia, Sunday - Wednesday. Speakers in these sessions will each be allotted 15 minutes for presentation and discussions. Abstracts not selected for platform presentation will be scheduled in an appropriate poster session. To ensure diversity in the scientific program, presenters who have spoken in a platform session at the previous Annual Meeting may not be selected to speak in a platform session from the same topic category during the current year.
Poster
Attendees submitting abstracts select the appropriate topic category for their abstract. More than 900 posters will be scheduled each day of the meeting.
Member-Organized Session (MOS)
Members who are interested in organizing a member-organized session on a specific topic must meet the criteria listed below in order for the session to be considered by the Program Committee. The selection of MOS competes with that of platform sessions. The Program Committee will consider well-organized sessions that include multiple labs working on a common topic. Individual presentations in an MOS must be topic related and not simply a collection of presentations from one lab or group. If the proposed MOS is not selected, the abstracts submitted for the session will be programmed either in an appropriate platform session or poster session. Speakers have 15 minutes for presentation and discussion. There must be eight speakers in a session.
- Member-organized sessions may only be organized by members of the Biophysical Society (membership must be current for the year of the Meeting).
- To be considered for presentation at the current Annual Meeting, the organizers and chairs of proposed MOS must not have been selected for presentation at the previous year’s Annual Meeting.
- Submissions must include the title of the session, chair of the session, a proposed list of speakers and titles of each of their abstracts.
- Submissions must also include a short description of how the proposed MOS is not addressed within the existing abstract categories.
- Complete proposals must be sent to the Society Office, [email protected], by September 14, 2020. MOS abstracts must be submitted by the abstract deadline in order for the MOS proposal to be considered; these abstract submissions must indicate “member-organized session” as the session type. No late abstract submissions will be considered for member-organized sessions.
Member-organized session proposals will be reviewed by the Program Committee. Those selected will be scheduled into sessions running concurrently with platform sessions and symposia, Sunday - Wednesday. Organizers and speakers listed in MOS proposals will be sent formal notification from the Society office of the Program Committee’s final selections.