In 1987, researchers from 11 U.S. institutions met together in Vail, Colorado for the first Gibbs Conference on Biothermodynamics. Their goal was to foster more innovative applications in the field of biological thermodynamics than had been traditionally envisioned.

Over the past 21 years, these annual conferences have grown and a society formed, named for Josiah Willard Gibbs, a mathematical physicist who laid much of the foundation for chemical thermodynamics. The Gibbs Society of Biological Thermodynamics more recently incorporated. Student and postdoctoral fellow participation from laboratories whose research intersects with the discipline of biological thermodynamics is stressed in order to further the aims of the society in future research.

The next annual meeting is scheduled for October 2008 in Carbondale, Illinois at the beautiful Touch of Nature Conference Center. For further information, please visit http://www.uchsc.edu/sop/Gibbs2008/index.html.