The European Biophysical Societies' Association is a non-profit making organisation (UK Charity Commission no. 1059024), to foster the exchange of scientific information among European biophysicists and biophysicists in general.

EBSA is an association of 33 Biophysical Societies in the European area. EBSA is an adherent member of the International Union for Pure and Applied Biophysics (IUPAB). EBSA maintains close links with Springer-Nature, the publishers of the European Biophysics Journal for which the copyright is owned by EBSA.

History In October 1980, at a joint conference of the Belgian, German and Netherlands Biophysical Societies in Aachen, a proposal emerged to form an Association of related European societies.EBSA – the early days", Eur. Biophys. J (2007) 36 (Suppl. 1): S9-S15 In November 1981, at a meeting in Frankfurt, hosted by the German Biophysical Society and attended by representative officers of the Belgian, British, Danish, German, Italian, Netherlands, Swedish and Swiss Biophysical Societies, the concept of a European Biophysical Societies' Association was unanimously endorsed and accepted by all the National Member Societies present. A journal associated with EBSA was also proposed as an eventual objective. An Acting Executive Committee was constituted as follows: President: Anders Ehenberg (Stockholm); Vice-president: W. Kreutz (Freiburg); Secretary: Julius Clauwaert (Wilrijk); Member: Peter Bayley (London).

The first EBSA General Assembly was held in July 1984, during the 8th IUPAB Congress in Bristol. The initial eight adhering societies attended, with new applications from France and Israel, and observers from Bulgaria, Hungary, Norway, Poland, Romania, Spain, USSR and Yugoslavia.

In 1984, The formation of the European Biophysics Journal (formally "Biophysics of Structure and Mechanism". Ed. H. Stieve, Germany), published by Springer Verlag. EBJ is now published by Springer Nature and wholly owned by EBSA, with publication revenues supporting EBSA. An "Encyclopedia of Biophysics", published by Springer-Nature and edited by GKC Roberts and A Watts, is now in its 2nd Edition.

Committees and governance

The EBSA Executive Committee is elected by voting members of the adherent societies at the General Assembly held at the biennial EBSA congresses, and meets biannually, with two meetings at the EBSA congress. The current President (6-year term) is usually the main organizer of the previous EBSA congress, and a President-elect is usually the organizer of the next congress. A Past-President, Secretary, Treasurer are joined by ~12 committee members and co-opted members. The Managing Editor of EBJ is an ex-officio member.

Conferences and activities Every two years EBSA organizes a European biophysics congress, hosted by a national biophysical society, and located across all parts Europe. The next Congress (2025) will be held in Rome, Italy hosted by SIBPA. In addition, EBSA offers sponsorship to organisers of multi-national meetings, workshops and schools that promote biophysics in Europe. Support can come in the form of grants to the organisers or bursaries to participants. EBSA also offers bursaries (typically 50 – 60) to individual early career scientists to enable them to participate in the biennial EBSA Congresses. Furthermore, new initiatives have been generated, such as support for working visits or bursaries to attend scientific meetings.

European Biophysics Congresses

+ Congresses Year Title Location 1971 1st European Biophysics Congress Baden, Austria 1997 2nd EBSA Orleans 2000 3rd EBSA Munich 2003 4th EBSA Alicante 2005 5th EBSA Montpellier – jointly with 15th IUPAB 2007 6th EBSA London 2009 7th EBSA Genoa 2011 8th EBSA Budapest 2013 9th EBSA Lisbon 2015 10th EBSA Dresden 2017 11TH EBSA Edinburgh – jointly with 19th IUPABDos Remedios, C.G., 2017. Special Issue of Biophysical Reviews dedicated to the 19th IUPAB Conference in Edinburgh, Scotland (July 2017). Biophysical Reviews, 9(4), pp.269-271 2019 12TH EBSA Madrid – jointly with 20th IUPAP 2021 13TH EBSA Vienna 2023 14TH EBSA Stockholm 2025 15TH EBSA Rome 2027 16TH EBSA Berlin – jointly with 21st IUPAB

List of presidents

+ Presidents From To President Country 1981 1984 Anders EhrenbergActing President SE 1984 1987 Anders Ehrenberg SE 1987 1990 ? 1990 1993 Peter Bayley UK 1993 1997 Manuel Cortijo SP 1997 2000 Paul Vigny FR 2000 2003 Heinz Rütterjans DE 2003 2005 Bernat Soria SP 2005 2007 Erick Dufourc FR 2007 2009 Michael Ferenczi UK 2009 2011 Alberto Diaspro IT 2011 2013 Laszlo Matyus HU 2013 2015 Manuel Prieto PT 2015 2017 Helmut Grubmüller DE 2017 2019 Anthony Watts UK 2019 2021 Jesus Perez-Gil SP 2021 2023 Elena E. Pohl AU 2023 2025 Maria Sunnerhagen SE 2025 2027 Mauro della Serra IT

References

External links https://ebsa.org/portal/