The history and activities of the Biophysical Society of Japan

  The Biophysical Society of Japan was founded on the 10th of December in 1960, under the presidency of Prof. Masao Kotani. The first annual meeting was held at Nippon Life Insurance Training Facility in Osaka for three days in two parallel sessions, with 50 oral presentations and 4 invited talks.
  The Society belongs to the IUPAB, the International Union of Pure and Applied Biophysics, and sends delegates to the International Congress of Biophysics held every three years. Many members of the Society also participate to the congress with enthusiasm. In 1978, the 6th International Congress of Biophysics was held in Kyoto under the leadership of the Society. About 2,000 biophysicists from about 30 countries participated in this congress. The event had contributed to the future development and activities of the Society. Then, the 2nd Japan-China Biophysics Symposium was held in Kyoto in 1988, the 1st East Asian Biophysics Symposium was held in Hyogo in 1994, and the 5th East Asian Biophysics Symposium and the 44th Annual Meeting of Biophysical Society of Japan was jointly held in Okinawa in 2006.
  The Society publishes "BPPB" and "SEIBUTSUBUTSURI (in Japanese)" and organizes an annual meeting. "SEIBUTSUBUTSURI" is issued seven times a year and one of them is an abstract book of the annual meeting. The annual meeting provides the places for instrument display and social hour for information exchange. The general assembly is also held during the annual meeting, and the management of the Society is discussed among the members of the Society. In the annual meeting, a wide variety of topics is discussed including, but not limited to, "Structure and function of proteins", "Structure and function of nucleotides and lipids", "Electronic states", "Water, hydration", "Dynamics of motor molecules", "Photo-biology", "Membrane", "Development and differentiation", "Function of brain and nerve system", "Non-equilibrium biological rhythm", "Radiation biology", "Evolution and the origin of life", "Bio-measurement, bio-imaging", and "Mathematical biology." In addition to the collaboration with cellular biology, molecular biology and biochemistry, the Society is stepping into a new collaboration with physics, chemistry and engineering for developing a core field of biophysics in the 21st century, such as structural biology, information biology and theoretical biology.
  In the 21st century, the Society has started to put emphasis on international activities, and the number of non-Japanese participants in the annual meeting including invited speakers has much increased. From 2005, the Society made an agreement between the Australian Society for Biophysics to allow the members of each Society to participate in their annual meetings with the same qualification that each member has in each society. Since 2006, the official language of the annual meeting has been switched to English, with all the presentations in the symposium, oral presentation, and poster presentation being given in English. Participants of the annual meeting now include people from Australia, India, New Zealand and other Asian and Oceanian countries, and the internationalization of the Society is accelerating.
  To further strengthen the basis of activities of the Society, the Society as a private organization dissolved at the end of 2013 and restarted as a general incorporated association in January 2014.

Committee Members of 2023-2024