The Biophysical Society is an international scientific society whose purpose is to lead the development and dissemination of knowledge in biophysics. Founded in 1958, the Society currently consists of over 7,000 members in academia, government, and industry. Although the Society is based in the United States, it is an international organization. Overseas members currently comprise over one third of the total.

The Biophysical Society was founded in response to the growth of the field of biophysics after World War Two, as well as concerns that the American Physiological Society had become too large to serve the community of biophysicists. Discussions between prominent biophysicists in 1955 and 1956 led to the planning of the society's first meeting in Columbus, Ohio in 1957, with about 500 attendees. Among the scientists involved in the early effort were Ernest C. Pollard, Samuel Talbot, Otto Schmitt, Kenneth Stewart Cole, W. A. Selle, Max Lauffer, Ralph Stacy, Herman P. Schwan, and Robley C. Williams. This meeting was described by Cole as "a biophysics meeting with the ulterior motive of finding out if there was such a thing as biophysics and, if so, what sort of thing this biophysics might be."

The Biophysical Society is governed by four officers: the President, President-elect, Past-President Secretary, and Treasurer, as well as by a Council of twelve members in addition to the officers. These offices are elected by the membership of the society. The Council appoints an executive officer to oversee the functions and staff of the society. The society has a number of committees that help to implement its mission. The committees are: Awards, Early Careers, Education, Finance, Member Services, Membership, Committee for Inclusion and Diversity, Nominating, Professional Opportunities for Women, Program, Public Affairs, Publications, and Thematic Meetings.

The Biophysical Society also supports subgroups focusing on smaller areas within biophysics. The current subgroups are: Bioenergetics, Mitochondria, and Metabolism, Bioengineering, Biological Fluorescence, Biopolymers in vivo, Cell Biophysics, Cryo-EM, Exocytosis and Endocytosis, Intrinsically Disordered Proteins, Membrane Biophysics, Membrane Structure & Function, Mechanobiology, Molecular Biophysics, Motility & Cytoskeleton, Nanoscale Biophysics, and Permeation & Transport.

Since 1960 the Biophysical Society has published the Biophysical Journal, which is currently semi-monthly, as a specialized journal in the field of biophysics. This was started because the Society perceived other scientific journals as unsympathetic to submissions by biophysicists. The society also publishes a monthly newsletter, an annual Membership Directory, and a Products Guide.

The Biophysical Society sponsors an Annual Meeting which brings together more than 6,000 scientists for symposia, workshops, industrial and educational exhibits, subgroup meetings, and awards presentations. The meeting features a talk by that year's Biophysical Society Lecturer, chosen for significance in biophysical research and excellence in presentation; the lectures are published in the Biophysical Journal, and those since 2003 are available on video. Starting in 2010 with "Calcium Signaling" in Beijing, the society now also sponsors 3-4 smaller thematic meetings annually across the world.

Since 2016, the Society has sponsored Biophysics Week each March. The week is a global event aimed at encouraging connections within the biophysics community and raising awareness of the field and its impact among the general public, policy makers, students, and scientists in the field.

The Society currently offers eleven Society Awards each year to distinguished biophysicists in different categories. The awards are: