Celebrating 100 years of The Company of Biologists
Posted by Alex Eve, on 14 January 2025
Happy New Year, everyone. 2025 is a big year for us at The Company of Biologists, marking 100 years since the Company was founded. We’re using this opportunity to reflect on what we do, how we got here and what lies ahead, alongside some special celebrations of this once-in-a-lifetime milestone.
Here, I highlight four projects to look out for during the year. You can help celebrate by visiting our anniversary page here, where you can register for updates, or by following #biologists100 on social media (The Company of Biologists is on BlueSky, X, Mastodon and LinkedIn).
The Company of Biologists: celebrating 100 years
To begin celebrating our 100-year anniversary, four of our Directors (Sarah Bray, Stephen Royle, Holly Shiels and Daniel St Johnston) reflect on the story of The Company of Biologists so far. They consider the Company’s current charitable activities and support for our communities, and highlight some of the inspiring articles and activities to come this year. You can read the cross-title Editorial in Journal of Cell Science here.
During 2025, we will be publishing lots more content across each of our journals about the past, present and future of the Company and its activities, as well as some articles about the biology published in the journals. Keep an eye on our anniversary collection as it continues to grow here.
100 extraordinary biologists
Throughout 2025, we will be featuring 100 biologists with extraordinary links to The Company of Biologists, highlighting a new pair of researchers each week. We begin with our founder, George Parker Bidder III, who hit the news most recently in 2015 after one of his messages in a bottle was discovered – the oldest of its kind at the time. If you’re on social media, you can follow our collection using the hashtag #100biologists, and if you’re not, you can take a look at the developing archive on our anniversary page here.
Message in a bottle
Inspired by George Parker Bidder III, we have set up our own digital ‘message in a bottle’ project. We would like to hear stories about how The Company of Biologists has supported you over time and the impact that has had on your research or career.
For example, we want to hear from you if you have:
- published in one of our journals
- received a Travelling Fellowship or other Company grants
- received support from the Company as a member of BSCB, BSDB or SEB
- attended a scientific meeting hosted by the Company
- contributed to one of our community sites
- acted in the role of Director, Editor or other partner
- worked with us in one of the many other projects we have run over the past few decades
Tell us your story by sending us your own digital ‘message in a bottle’ here.
Biologists @ 100 conference
A key event in our programme of activities is our interdisciplinary Biologists @ 100 conference in Liverpool, which brings together each of the communities served by The Company of Biologists’ journals. You can learn more about the programme and register to attend on the conference website here.
We’ve made a video (below) that discusses some of the ways we’ve made this a sustainable event and encourage you to also think sustainably when making travel plans to join us in March. See you there?
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