BETHESDA, MD – The Biophysical Society is pleased to announce the recipients of its 2027 Society Awards. These awards are very competitive in nature and are intended to recognize Society members for excellence in biophysics. The winners will be honored at the Society’s 71st Annual Meeting, being held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from February 20-24, 2027.
The 2027 Agnes Pockels Award in Lipids and Membrane Biophysics is given to Rumiana Dimova, Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Germany, for studies on creating, manipulating, and analyzing giant unilamellar vesicles, enabling breakthroughs in mechanical analysis, minimal reconstitutions of membrane reshaping, and characterizing interactions with biomolecular condensates.
The 2027 Award in Membrane Protein Biophysics is given to Filippo Mancia, Columbia University, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, USA for leading pioneering work on the structure and mechanisms of membrane proteins, with a particular focus on lipid-interacting membrane proteins.
The 2027 BPS Award in the Biophysics of Health & Disease is given to William A. Eaton, National Institute Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health, USA, for revolutionizing our biophysical understanding of the molecular pathogenesis and drug therapy for sickle cell disease.
The 2027 Michael and Kate Bárány Award is given to Kandice Tanner, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, USA, for discoveries elucidating the biophysical determinants of organ-specific metastasis in a living animal.
The 2027 Carolyn Cohen Innovation Award is given to Yu-li Wang, Carnegie Mellon University, USA, will receive the Carolyn Cohen Innovation Award for foundational discoveries that have enabled the field of mechanobiology and the use of fluorescence microscopy to study protein dynamics in living cells.
The 2027 Margaret Oakley Dayhoff Award is given to Rosemary Cater, Institute for Molecular Bioscience, University of Queensland, Australia, for contributions to advancing the structural and biophysical understanding of transporters at the blood-brain barrier
The 2027 BPS Early Career Award is given to Lauren L. Porter, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, USA, for insightful work on predicting and understanding fold-switching proteins.
The 2027 Founders Award is given to Robert M. Stroud, University of California, San Francisco, will receive the Founders Award for substantial and extensive contributions to our structural understanding of membrane-related proteins.
The 2027 Ignacio Tinoco Award in Physical Chemistry of Macromolecules is given to Joseph D. (Jody) Puglisi, Stanford University School of Medicine, USA, for sophisticated NMR studies that have advanced fundamental concepts of RNA recognition and for groundbreaking single-molecule FRET studies of ribosome function, including translational frameshifting, bypassing, stalling, and pausing during elongation.
The 2027 Kazuhiko Kinosita Award in Single-Molecule Biophysics is given to Nils G. Walter, University of Michigan, USA, for pioneering the development and application of single-molecule fluorescence techniques that have advanced our understanding of RNA biology and gene expression, and for exceptional leadership in advancing single-molecule biophysics through innovation, mentorship, and the broad dissemination of tools.
The 2027 Klaus Schulten and Zaida Luthey-Schulten Award in Computational Biophysics is given to Benoît Roux, University of Chicago, USA, for pioneering work in calculating binding free energies, designing polarizable force fields, and contributing to the development of both the CHARMM and NAMD simulation programs
The 2027 Doctoral Research Award is given to Jason Casar, Stanford University and Harvard Medical School, USA, for integrating materials science, physics, and biology to develop ingestible optical microgauges that enable direct measurement of forces generated by the nematode pharynx, a model for aspects of cardiac function and disease.
The 2027 Doctoral Research Award is given to M. Julia Maristany, University of Cambridge, UK, for developing and applying multiscale molecular simulations to reveal the physicochemical principles governing biomolecular condensates and the near-atomistic organization of chromatin within them
The 2027 Excellence in Undergraduate Education Award is given to Thayaparan Paramanathan, Bridgewater State University, USA, will receive the Excellence in Undergraduate Education Award for distinction in academic research, undergraduate mentoring, support for primarily undergraduate institutions, and service to the Biophysical Society.
The 2027 Rosalba Kampman Distinguished Service Award is given to Erin D. Sheets, University of Minnesota Duluth, USA, will receive the Rosalba Kampman Distinguished Service Award for an exceptional, decades-long commitment to the structural health and inclusivity of the biophysics community, demonstrated by visionary leadership in Society governance and the creation of enduring mentorship networks.
The 2027 Emily M. Gray Distinguished Educator Award is given to Yadilette Rivera-Colón, Bay Path University, USA, will receive the Emily M. Gray Distinguished Educator Award for distinguished service to biophysical education through pioneering outreach initiatives, innovative curriculum development, and tireless mentorship that has broadened participation and inspired the next generation of biophysicists, particularly those historically excluded from science.
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The Biophysical Society, founded in 1958, is a professional, scientific society established to lead an innovative global community working at the interface of the physical and life sciences, across all levels of complexity, and to foster the dissemination of that knowledge. The Society promotes growth in this expanding field through its Annual Meeting, publications, and outreach activities. Its 6,000 members are located throughout the world, where they teach and conduct research in colleges, universities, laboratories, government agencies, and industry.