Congratulations to Professors Charles L. Brooks III and Sarah Veatch on receiving 2026 Society Awards from the Biophysical Society! The winners will be honored at the Society’s 70th Annual Meeting, being held in San Francisco, California from February 21-25, 2026.
The 2026 Klaus Schulten and Zaida Luthey-Schulten Computational Biophysics Lecture Award is given to Charles L. Brooks III, University of Michigan, for his pioneering work in protein folding, free energy methods and service to the field of biophysics. The Klaus Schulten and Zaida Luthey-Schulten Computational Biophysics Lecture Award, introduced in 2025, recognizes researchers for their outstanding contributions in computational or theoretical, including analytical theory, aspects of biophysical systems, and service to the BPS or society broadly. This award honors the mathematical, theoretical, and technological innovations of Klaus Schulten and Zaida Luthey-Schulten, which led to key discoveries about the motion of individual proteins and nucleic acids, organelles and the whole cell, and their contributions recognized by the Biophysical Society Distinguished Service Award.
The 2026 Agnes Pockels Award in Lipids and Membrane Biophysics is given to Sarah Veatch, University of Michigan, for foundational scientific research understanding the miscibility phase transition and associated critical phenomena in membranes and for the rigorous application of these biophysical concepts to cellular processes. The Agnes Pockels Award in Lipids and Membrane Biophysics, formerly the Avanti Award in Lipids, is given to an investigator for outstanding contributions to advancing the field of lipids and membrane biophysics.
