The rapidly expanding application of experimental high-throughput and high-resolution methods in biology is creating enormous challenges for the visualization of biological data. To address these challenges, researchers in the visualization and bioinformatics communities need to engage in the design, implementation, application, and evaluation of novel visualization techniques and tools that provide insight into large and highly complex data sets. BioVis 2013 - the 3rd IEEE Symposium on Biological Data Visualization - aims at bringing together researchers from the visualization, bioinformatics, and biology communities to establish an interdisciplinary dialogue and to promote the sharing of expertise, between both meeting participants and the communities at large. The meeting is intended to educate, inspire, and engage visualization researchers in problems in biological data visualization, as well as bioinformatics and biology researchers in state-of-the-art visualization research. The symposium will serve as a platform for researchers from these fields to increase the impact of data visualization approaches in biology. The breadth and diversity of biological research topic areas will enable researchers from all parts of the visualization and bioinformatics communities to contribute to this effort and the symposium will provide an excellent opportunity to initiate interdisciplinary collaborations. BioVis 2013 will be taking place on 13-14 October 2013 in October 2013 in Atlanta, GA and will be co-located with IEEE VIS 2013. IEEE VIS is the premier forum for visualization advances for academia, government, and industry, bringing together researchers and practitioners with a shared interest in tools, techniques, technology, and theory.