Theoretical Biophysics: Searching for Principles

Cuny Graduate School University Center, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

This project will provide partial support for the conference "Theoretical Biophysics: Searching for principles" (the Conference), to be held at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City on Sep. 14 -16, 2022. The Conference will bring together world leaders in theoretical biophysics, and it will provide the opportunity for them to interact with education experts in the field, as well as with notable theorists in other fields of physics. The Conference is aimed at surveying achievements at the interface of theoretical physics and biology, to understand whether we expect theory at this interface to be different compared to the rest of theoretical physics, and if it will contribute differently, then how and why. Finally, the Conference will aim to understand challenges and opportunities involved in teaching the next generation of scientists at this interface. The field of theoretical biophysics has grown in the recent decades from a boutique corner of physics to a substantial part of the international physics community. For example, over the course of the past ten years, the footprint of biophysics at the Annual March Meeting of the American Physical Society has more than doubled. Together with related fields of statistical physics (soft matter, polymer physics, statistical physics) biophysics now accounts for about a quarter of the talks at the meeting. Collectively, these groups are responsible for essentially all of the growth of the meeting in the last decade. Following such a rapid growth, it is now the time to take stock of the field and to understand where we are, and where we go from there. Are we still a single field, or have we fragmented into a collection of sub-disciplines roughly paralleling major divisions of life sciences? What have we contributed to understanding life that biologists would not be able to do on their own? Have we changed the discourse and the type of questions that are being asked? How do we educate the next generation of scientists to ensure that future progress remains equally dramatic? This Conference is needed precisely to answer these questions. The conference will be timely since conferences in this area have been mostly virtual during the pandemic and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine has just completed the first Decadal Review of Biological Physics This event will provide an unparalleled opportunity to survey and summarize the current state of the field of theoretical biophysics. The perspectives presented at the Conference should help frame big questions for the next decade in the field. The presentations at the meeting will be recorded and made publicly available, increasing broader impact. Finally, by means of attracting a diverse group of participants, presenters, and discussants, including junior scientists, the meeting will contribute to the growth of diversity in physical sciences. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.