But now the question is, what conference would I go to? As a particle physicist the answer was either APS April Meeting (their big particle/astro/cosmo meeting) or a division meeting - the division of nuclear physics or particles and fields. These conferences are fairly big and have lots of students. There is often support from APS for students to go. Sure, there were other conferences (usually in more exciting places) that had a specific topic, like a specific type of detector technology or type of particle interaction. But those conferences had fewer students and usually only one (or a few) people from a single experiment. The APS meetings had plenty of overlap - a session of double beta decay people each giving the same overview of double beta decay, for instance.
Now March meeting is slightly more appropriate - the HUGE condensed matter meeting has biophysics as well. Am I a biophysicist? Well, sortof. I'd like to present the Cerenkov Light Imaging simulations I am working on. It involves simulations of particle interactions (physics) and it is used for biological measurements. So it sounds like biophysics to me.
Let's pretend I was going to go and give a talk on this. I'd have to choose a section to submit my abstract to. Here are the sections under biophysics:
10. Biological Physics
- 10.1 Physics of Proteins: folding and structure
- 10.2 Physics of Proteins: dynamics and mechanism
- 10.3 Protein-Protein Interaction, and Protein Aggregation
- 10.4 Nucleic Acids: Structure & Function
- 10.5 Lipid Bilayers and Biological Membranes
- 10.6 Computational Molecular Biophysics
- 10.7 Experimental Techniques in Biophysics
- 10.8 Physical Virology
- 10.9 Physics of Bacteria
- 10.10 Biological Networks & Systems Biology
- 10.11 Cellular Biomechanics
- 10.12 Multi-cellular Processes and Development
- 10.13 Physics of Physiological Systems
- 10.14 Evolutionary and Ecological Systems
- Special Focus Topics:
- 10.15.1 Novel Single-Molecule Approaches to Biology (DBP/DPOLY) [same as 4.15.15]
- 10.15.2 Evolution and Evolutionary Design Principles (DBP)
- 10.15.3 Micro and Nanofabrication Probes of Cancer Cell Evolution (DBP)
- 10.15.4 Information Processing in Biological Systems (GSNP/DBP) [same as 12.7.5]
- 10.15.5 Physics of Active Materials (DBP/GSNP) [same as 12.7.6]
- 10.15.6 Solar Energy Future: Biological and Biomemetic Systems (DBP)
- 10.15.7 Biomechanics: From Subcellular to Multicellular Scales (DBP/DCOMP)
- 10.15.8 Translocation Through Nanopores (DPOLY/DBP) [same as 4.15.8]
- 10.15.9 Active Biopolymers and Biomaterials (DPOLY/DBP) [same as 4.15.7]
- 10.15.10 Supramolecular Self-assembly: Controlling Network and Gel (DPOLY/DBP) [same as 4.15.6]
- 10.15.11 The Physics of Evolution (DCP/DBP) [same as 11.7.1]
- 10.15.12 Non-Equilibrium Insights into Single Molecules and Cell Function (DCP/DBP) [same as 11.7.2]
- 10.15.13 Quantum Coherence in Biology (DCP/DBP) [same as 11.7.3]
None of those sound like what I'm doing. Is my work so interdisciplinary they don't have a category for me? Worse, my group is too interdisciplinary. Student travel grants are only available for students whose ADVISOR is a member of the Biological Division of APS. So in the end... perhaps I'm just not what they are looking for. Even in biophysics, there isn't a place for interdisciplinary work.
Yeah, it took years while in undergrad to understand the names for the various interdisciplinary niches.
ReplyDeleteBiophysics is usually using physics to map out the shapes of proteins.
Health physics is macro-level statistical approaches to quantifying dose to various organs from radiation.
Bioengineering covers too broad an area to mean anything.
Biomedical Engineering is a part of Bioengineering, but focused on building devices for anything medically related.
Medical physics is a part of Biomedical Engineering, but focused on imaging and radiotherapy.
Your stuff could fit in several different emerging terms of interdisciplinary niches. Definitely talk to Ted about the various conference which would work. Also, just ask around at the animal imaging center. There are literally more conferences than I know what to do with. WMIC is pretty major. ASTRO, AAPM, ESTRO, etc. apply if your work is at all related to radiotherapy. (AT ALL, my mouse bed had posters at them.)
Good luck navigating this mess!