Greeting
The 58th Annual Meeting of the Biophysics Society of Japan
Chair of the Organizing Committee
Kenji Oosawa, Ph.D.
Gunma University
The conference committee has been preparing the 58th Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society of Japan, to be held at G Messe Gunma in Takasaki, Gunma, from 16th to 18th of next September, 2020. The current situation of a novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in and out of Japan, however, does not allow having social activities like the ones we used to have. Many restrictions have been imposed on everyday life and big events to minimize impact of disease all over the world.
G Messe Gunma was planed to open in the middle of April, but the opening was delayed at June 1st. Still, there will be many types of restrictions imposed on a meeting held in the place for a certain time period. Under this condition, we have decided that the meeting should be held as the format to online conference instead of physical conference at the G Messe Gunma prioritizing the safety and health of participants.
A lot of concerns may arise on an online style conference, especially on the disclosure level of the presentation. Many concerns such as troubles on information transmission and information leakages have been already suggested. The past annual meetings have prohibited photography and recording of any formats during presentation, and hence this rule is applied to the online conference letting all the participants stay away from such conducts. However, we also understand that the concern remains and the decision on the presentation style and contents by the participants is highly esteemed.
Although we are still uncertain which style of symposium and poster session will be effective in the online conference, we are preparing the most enlightening style both for presenters and audiences under this situation. We welcome your comments and suggestions for the style of presentation. Feel free to send messages to the committee.
We are inviting high school students for poster presentations in this conference as well. We extended periods for submissions till June 30th. We look forward to seeing all of you at the 58th Annual Meeting of the Biophysics Society of Japan online in next September.
Chair of the Organizing Committee
Kenji Oosawa, Ph.D.
Gunma University
Advanced registration and abstract submission will close on June 30.
Please make a payment by July 31, since the online conference cannot handle an onsite registration. When the office cannot confirm the payment within the due, the registration including the poster presentation will be canceled.
Biophysics is a research field studying a variety of properties of organisms based on physics and its goals are revealing mechanisms of biological phenomena among structure and function in hierarchy from molecular and organism’s level. We all bring together scientists who work at the interface of the biological, physical, and computational sciences. One of the characteristic features of our annual meeting is excitement of conference, such as heated discussions in front of many poster presentations.
The organizing committee is preparing a novel style for poster presentation in the 58th Annual Meeting. Different posters have been presented in different date during the meeting as usual. In this meeting, however, we will have all posters to be presented throughout the meeting. By this style, we will get together to discuss the poster contents anytime and feel free to communicate with each other. Furthermore, a space for poster presentations will be open as an evening session after the presentation time of each poster.
Another feature of this meeting is attendance of high school students. We invite high school students for poster presentations. Recently, research works by high school students have been promoted by introduction of Super Science High Schools (SSH) project by Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST). Many of them have presented at the scientific meetings not only in Japan but also in the world. We, the Biophysics Society of Japan, set opportunity for high school students to present their research results as posters in the previous annual meeting.
We look forward to seeing all of you at the 58th Annual Meeting of the Biophysics Society of Japan in Takasaki, Gunma in coming September.
