5th APS Workshop on Opportunities in Biological Physics

Sunday, March 9
9:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Balcony IJ
New Orleans Marriott Hotel
555 Canal Street

Organized by APS Division of Biological Physics

Life provides a wellspring of opportunities for physical analysis. This workshop will introduce two exciting areas in biological physics: biomechanics and genetic networks. Topics will include motion science, the physics of walking, artificial hands, the physics of cell shape, the dynamics and noise in genetic and signal transduction networks. Speakers from academia and industry will provide extensive tutorial overviews, accessible to non-specialists. There will be ample time for participants to discuss their current and future scientific and career directions with the speakers.

The workshop is aimed at all physicists who are curious about the interface between physics and biology, especially graduate students and post-docs who are eager to apply their expertise in novel ways in the life sciences. The workshop will start at 9:00 AM and run until approximately 4:30 PM. The pre-registration deadline is February 11, 2008. Pre-registration fees are $50 for students, $75 for postdoctoral researchers and $100 for all others. The fee includes continental breakfast and a box lunch. Limited on-site registrations will be allowed with a late fee ($25) for each category and cash payment only (no credit card), but availability of box lunches is not guaranteed for late registrants.

Speakers:

• K. C. Huang, Princeton University, “The Biophysical Origins of Spatio-temporal Network Dynamics”
• Art Kuo, University of Michigan, “Mechanics and Control of Human Locomotion: Let your Physics do the Walking?”
• John Milton, Claremont McKenna College, “Motion Science: A New Frontier for Physicists”
• Gurol Suel, UT Southwestern, “Cellular Differentiation: Noisy and Dynamic, but Tunable”
• Yuhai Tu, I.B.M. Watson Research, “From Molecules to Behavior: A Single Cell's Memory, Computation and Taxis”
• Francisco Valero-Cuevas, U.S.C., “Why Haven’t We Made Better Artificial Hands? ”
  
• TBA

Steering Committee:

Chair: Stephen Quake (quake@stanford.edu) Vice-Chair, DBP
Members: Shirley Chan (ChanShirley@mailaps.org) Secretary-Treasurer, DBP
  John Milton (jmilton@jsd.claremont.edu) Member-at-Large, DBP
  Chao Tang (chao.tang@ucsf.edu) Member-at-Large, DBP

Speakers’ biosketches, abstracts and program schedule will be posted by late December on the Division of Biological Physics website. See also information on past workshops.

FINANCIAL SUPPORT PROVIDED IN PART BY: Agouron Foundation