Greetings from IUPAB Secretary General.

This commentary provides a short description of IUPAB's past and present activities from the IUPAB's Secretary General, Dr. Juan C. Gómez-Fernández. © International Union for Pure and Applied Biophysics (IUPAB) and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2021.

The year that just ended was a very difficult one for all of us due to the devastation created by the COVID-19 pandemic. We all hope that 2021 will be a year for the beginning of the recovery. Here I briefly discuss some of the disrupted activities of IUPAB along with plans going forward, for a return to normalcy in the coming years.

Meetings

The IUPAB Congress scheduled to be held in Foz do Iguazú (Brasil) in 2020 was one of the scientific meetings that has been postponed due to the pandemic. It will be now held in October of 2021. Similarly, two IUPAB Focused Meetings due to be held in early 2021, in India and in Canada, have now been postponed for one year, until 2022.

In the same fashion, the 2023 IUPAB Congress due to be held in Kyoto in June 2023 is now postponed to similar dates but of 2024. Note that bids to hold the IUPAB Congress in 2027 should be submitted before 1st of May, 2021.

General assembly

Another consequence of the postponement of the Congress is that the General Assembly cannot be held until 2021. According to Article V of the Statutes and Rules of Procedure: “The work of the Union shall be directed by the General Assembly of delegates, which shall normally meet once every three years,” I think that we are not in a normal situation. To prevent future similar problems, the Executive Committee will propose a change of the Statutes and Rules of Procedures to permit virtual General Assemblies and online votes to elect IUPAB representatives. A General Assembly (online) will be held during February 2021.

IUPAB sponsorship

Please remember the new modalities of sponsoring policies of IUPAB in http://iupab.org/sponsorship-policy/. Among these new modalities are the following:

Sponsorship of a prize for communications made by students or young biophysicists. Societies of countries linked to IUPAB as Adhering Bodies may apply for this prize to be awarded to presentations made by young biophysicists during meetings of these societies. The prize could also be given during meetings of associations of young biophysicists. See in this link the details to be taken into account: http://iupab.org/sponsorship-policy/.

Sponsorship of Plenary Lectures in major biophysics meetings and conferences. IUPAB will sponsor plenary lectures in major meetings or congresses of biophysics like those of EBSA (Europe), ABA (Asia-Pacific), Biophysical Society, and LaFEBS (Latin American countries). See http://iupab.org/sponsorship-policy/.

Applications should be sent to the Secretary General: jcgomez@um.es.

Concluding remarks

Finally, I wish you a happy and safe 2021.

Juan C. Gómez-Fernández

IUPAB Secretary General