The 2025 Annual National Conference on Terahertz Biophysics, hosted by the Terahertz Biophysics Academic Subgroup of the Biophysical Society of China (BSC), was held in Beijing from Feb 21 to 23. 

The event opened with speeches by Ouyang Xiaoping, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and chair of the conference; and Li Hailiang, vice-president of Capital Normal University (CNU), representing the organizing institutions.

Five experts deliver plenary speeches during the 2025 Annual National Conference on Terahertz Biophysics, held from Feb 21 to 23, 2025. [Photo/WeChat account: BSC]

Plenary reports were delivered by experts including Shi Shengcai and Ma Yuqiang, academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); Chang Chao, president of the BSC Terahertz Biophysics Academic Subgroup; Qi Feng, researcher at the CAS Shenyang Institute of Automation; and Zhang Yan, professor at CNU.

The reports included terahertz spectral detection technology and applications, physics of complex living systems, advances in terahertz biophysics, terahertz diffraction imaging technology and terahertz wavefront acquisition and control.

This year’s conference was structured around eight thematic forums covering areas such as terahertz biophysics, terahertz detection and imaging, terahertz generation technology and terahertz biomedicine.

More than 300 experts and scholars from institutions across China participated, presenting over 160 reports on cutting-edge advancements in the field. Discussions revolved around the opportunities and challenges in terahertz biophysics, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration among physics, biology, chemistry and medicine.

The event served as a platform for knowledge exchange, sparking new ideas and promoting the integration of domestic resources and expertise to further advance terahertz science and technology in China.

“Top 10 Advances in Terahertz Frontiers” are presented at the 2025 Annual National Conference on Terahertz Biophysics, held from Feb 21 to 23, 2025. [Photo/WeChat account: BSC]

One of the highlights of the conference was the selection of “Top 10 Advances in Terahertz Frontiers”, recognizing groundbreaking research in the field. The awarded papers included notable studies such as High-order direct modulation terahertz communications with a wideband time-coding metachip modulator (published in Science Advances), Defect-induced helicity dependent terahertz emission in Dirac semimetal PtTe2 thin films (published in Nature Communications) and Advanced terahertz refractive sensing and fingerprint recognition through metasurface-excited surface waves (published in Advanced Materials).