Celebrating 100 years of The Company of Biologists

To mark the 100-year anniversary of The Company of Biologists, the first anniversary article— prepared by four of the Directors—was just published. It reflects on a century of transformative contributions to the biological sciences and its community. Accompanying the editorial is a beautifully designed poster (see image below) highlighting key developments from the past century, including the launch of preLights in 2018.

More stories will follow later this year; things to already get excited about include the ‘100 biologists’ series, highlighting biologists with an extraordinary link to The Company of Biologists, as well as the ‘message in a bottle’ collection. The latter is inspired by the fact that George Parker Bidder III, the founder of The Company of Biologists, sent out what is now regarded as one of the oldest messages in a bottle found! We would love to feature stories from preLighters as part this collection, so please feel free to send us a message in a bottle by filling out this form.

The anniversary celebrations will culminate in the Biologists @ 100 Conference, taking place 24-27 March in Liverpool, UK. This event will bring together the biological community for discussions on the past, present, and future of the different research fields represented by the five journals published by The Company. Excitingly, preLights (as well as the Node and FocalPlane) will have a conference reporter on site to cover the event and highlight the most exciting preprints discussed during the meeting. Also, there will be a dedicated half-day event specifically for early-career researchers – read more about this here. Want to take part in this inspiring conference? Register now!