June
2008
CAS Computer Science Professor Shenghua Teng Lands Prestigious Gödel Prize
Professor Shang-Hua Teng, professor of Computer Science, will be honored with the prestigious Gödel Prize for outstanding papers in theoretical computer science. Together with long-time collaborator and friend Daniel A. Spielman, a Yale University professor of applied mathematics and computer science, Teng won the award for his research in developing a rigorous framework to explain the practical success of algorithms on real data and real computers that could not be easily understood through traditional techniques. The Association for Computing Machinery and the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science present the award each year. Teng will travel to Reykjavik, Iceland, next month to receive the prize at the International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming. more >>
James Winn Named Director of Boston University Humanities Foundation
James Winn, professor of English and former chair of the English Department, will serve as the next director of the Boston University Humanities Foundation (BUHF), effective Sept. 1. He succeeds Katherine O’Connor, professor of Russian Studies, who will continue her association with the foundation as co-director. Dr. Winn brings a wealth of knowledge in the arts and humanities to his new post. His scholarly work combines a commitment to the literature of England in the Restoration and early eighteenth century with a broad interest in the relationship between literature and other arts. “I am honored to have been chosen to lead the Boston University Humanities Foundation,” Dr. Winn said. “I am eager to begin working with my colleagues to make it a vibrant center for interdisciplinary activities."
more >>
CAS Professor Barbara Shinn-Cunningham Selected for National Security Science and Engineering Faculty Fellows Program
CAS Professor Barbara Shinn-Cunningham, director of graduate studies in the Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems, has been selected as one of six distinguished university faculty scientists and engineers for the inaugural class of the National Security Science and Engineering Faculty Fellows (NSSEFF) Program in the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD).
The NSSEFF Program will provide top-tier researchers from U.S. universities up to $3 million of direct research support for up to five years to conduct long-term, unclassified research of strategic importance to future DoD technology development. The basic research in core science and engineering disciplines is crucial to applications such as sensors, surveillance, information security, cyber and force protection, and power projection.
Shinn-Cunningham was chosen in a rigorous selection process. Nearly 150 academic institutions submitted more than 500 nominations for the fellowship. Following review of 350 technical white papers, only 20 semifinalists were invited to submit full proposals outlining their research plans. Upon completion of negotiations between academic institutions and DoD research offices, the grants will be made to the faculty members’ home institutions to support their research.
"This award will allow us to learn to read from neural signals how listeners control auditory attention,” says Shinn-Cunningham. “This work is important for applications from command and control—like helping an air traffic controller cope with processing the heavy flow of information—to hearing-aid design. I am thrilled by this award and the opportunities it will enable.”
April
2008
Boston
University Mock Trial team which competed
in Minneapolis, Minnesota in the National
Championships received a trophy for achieving
tenth place
The members of the team are:
Dannielle
Perry and Stella Lee, captains, Natalie
Robinson, Zach Mason,
Eric Muller, Morgan Szulewski-Francis,
Katie Laux, Alex Fennell.
Natalie Robinson
was designated All-American status as an
attorney and
Morgan Szulewski-Francis was designated
All-American status as a
witness. They each received a plaque in
recognition of their
achievements. Stella Lee, Dannielle Perry,
Eric Muller and Morgan Szulewski-Francis
are seniors at the College of Arts and
Sciences.
Assistant
Professor Sigrun Olafsdottir wins Esther
Kinsley PhD Dissertation Award from Indiana
University for 2007-2008
Assistant Professor
Sigrun Olafsdottir, who joined the CAS
faculty in Sociology in September, 2007,
has won major recognition from Indiana
University, where she completed her Ph.D.
in 2007. Her dissertation, Medicalizing
Mental Health: A Comparative View
of the Public, Private, and Professional
Construction of Mental Illness, has
been selected as the winner of the
Esther Kinsley PhD Dissertation Award
for 2007-2008. This
is the highest honor for research that
Indiana University bestows upon its graduate
students. Her colleagues here
salute her high achievement.
Prof. Olafsdottir
is continuing her exploration of health
care in varied global contexts and is an
important contributor to the strength of
the Department and the University in understanding
global health issues.
Cognitive
and Neural Systems Professor Barbara
Shinn-Cunningham is semi-finalist for
the National Security Science and Engineering
Faculty Fellowships
Hymns, Hip-Hop, and
Harmony more >>
CAS Student Mobilizes
Health Care Volunteers for Honduras more
>>
CAS Professor of Economics
Randall Ellis named president-elect of
the American Society of Health Economists more
>>
March
2008
CAS Physics
News:
- Professor El-Batanouny
Wins Jefferson Fellowship more
>>
- Grad Student
Wins APS GIMS Travel Grant more >>
- Professor Redner
Among APS Outstanding Referees more >>
Boston University
Awarded Beckman Scholars Program Grant
The Arnold and Mabel
Beckman Foundation received many applications
for evaluation as potential Beckman Scholars
Program award recipients. The challenge
of narrowing the field for phase two of
the competition only hinted at the challenge
of selecting our finalists.
Of the thirty-five final applications,
fifteen were selected for funding. A twelve-member
advisory panel of distinguished teacher/scholars
made a
thorough, collective recommendation to
the Foundation's Board of Directors
of those institutions to receive a 2008
Beckman Scholars Award. Boston
University was among those selected for
funding.
CAS mock trial team
wins Boston Regional competition
CAS mock trial team wins the Boston Regional competition and will be competing
in the National Championships in Minneapolis-St.Paul from April 3rd to April
6th, 2008.
February
2008
Honorable Mention,
2007 Award for Best Professional/Academic
Book in Sociology and Social Work
CAS Professor, Kevin Lang (Department of
Economics), Poverty and Discrimination,
Princeton University Press.
Seymour Wang receives
CAREER Award from the National Science
Foundation more
>>
Pinghua Liu receives
CAREER Award from the National Science
Foundation more
>>
Linda Doerrer receives
New Directions Grant from the ACS Petroleum
Research Fund more
>>
January
2008
Ellis to Lead American
Society of Health Economists
Professor Randall
Ellis is the new president-elect
of the American
Society of Health Economists, a professional
organization dedicated to promoting excellence
in health economics research in the United
States. According to Kevin Lang, chair of
the Economics Department, "This a great
honor which reflects not only Randy's important
research contributions to health economics
but the very significant role he has played
in mentoring young health economists at
BU and elsewhere and developing the human
capital of the sub-discipline." Ellis
will serve for two years as president-elect,
two as
president and two as immediate past president.
Boston
Playwrights' Theatre Tops Best-Of Lists
Critics from the
Boston Globe and Metro Boston
ranked Boston
Playwrights' Theatre's production of
Leslie Epstein's King
of the Jews at or near the top of their
year-end roundups of the best theater in
Boston in 2007. The production, adopted
from the novel by Epstein, who is the director
of BU's Creative
Writing Program, ranked second on Louise
Kennedy's list
in the Globe and first on the Metro's Nick
Dussault's list of his three favorite shows
of the year. In other news, the BPT is preparing
for its annual Young
Playwrights' Festival in April. Under
the umbrella of the Massachusetts Young
Playwrights Project, participating Massachusetts
high schools (probably 12 this year) receive
a two-day residency, during which each student
will write and develop a ten-minute play
under the guidance of a professional playwright.
Two plays from each school will be performed
by professional actors at the annual festival,
set for this April 9 and 10 at the Playwrights'
Theatre. Meanwhile, the BPT's next production,
Melinda Lopez's Gary, opens February
28.
Hefner to Lead Association
for Asian Studies
Professor of Anthropology
Robert Hefner has been
elected as president of the Association
for Asian Studies. The AAS is the major
social science and humanities organization
dealing with Asian Studies. Hefner was chosen
through a general election by the entire
membership, more than 7,000 scholars worldwide.
National
Jewish Book Award Honors for Katz
Two edited collections by Steven
Katz, the director of BU's Elie
Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies, have won
significant distinction from the Jewish
Book Council. The Cambridge History
of Judaism Volume IV: The Late Roman-Rabinic
Period received the 2007 National Jewish
Book Award in the reference category. Wrestling
with God: Jewish Theological Responses During
and After the Holocaust (co-edited
with Homo Biderman and Gershon Greenberg)
was selected out of many submissions as
a finalist for the 2007 National Jewish
Book Award in the anthologies and collections
category. The National Jewish Book Awards
are the longest running North American awards
of their kind in the field of Jewish literature
and recognized as the most prestigious.
Katz is the Alvin J. and Shirley
Slater Professor in Jewish Holocaust Studies
and a professor of religion. Katz will be
honored at an awards ceremony on March 4
at the Center for Jewish History in New
York City.
Nature
Cover Features BU Physics Alum more
>>
BU
Makes List of 2007's Top 10 Physics Stories
The American Institute of Physics has released
its Top
10 Physics Stories of 2007, and BU has
made the list with the work of Professor
Ulrich Heintz and his research
group at Fermilab's Tevatron collider, the
world’s highest energy accelerator.
Heintz is currently leading the top physics
analysis group at the DZero experiment,
and the BU group has worked directly on
the evidence for single top quark production
(Dr. Shabnam Jabeen), top-antitop
production (Dr. DooKee Cho)
and on the measurement of the top quark
mass (graduate students Dan Boline
and Vivek Parihar). Learn
more about the DZero experiment here.
Kunz
Honored for Lifetime Achievement
Professor of Biology Thomas Kunz
has received the 2008 Karst
Waters Institute (KWI) Award, which
honors lifetime achievement in karst studies.
Kunz, director of BU's
Center for Ecology and Conservation Biology,
will be recognized by the karst research
and conservation community at a banquet
in March at the State University of New
York, Cobbleskill. ("Karst" is
a special type of landscape that is formed
by the dissolution of soluble rocks, including
limestone and dolomite; karst regions contain
aquifers that are capable of providing large
supplies of water. More than 25 percent
of the world's population either lives on
or obtains its water from karst aquifers.)
At the award ceremony, Kunz will give an
illustrated talk entitled "Captivated
by Caves and Consumed by the Chiroptera;
My Life From the Underground to the Aerosphere,"
in which he'll share his early experiences
rappelling into, wading neck deep in water,
and crawling around inside the caves of
Missouri, and how those adventures stimulated
his lifelong interest in bats.
Wiseman
Receives Gold Medal from AIA
Professor James Wiseman
will receive the 2008 Gold Medal Award for
Distinguished Archaeological Achievement
from the Archaeological
Institute of America (AIA) at its annual
meeting on January 4, 2008. The AIA is the
largest archaeological organization in North
America and the principal professional organization
for classical and Mediterranean archaeologists.
The Gold Medal, called a "once-in-a-lifetime
award" by Professor Ricardo Elia, chair
of BU's Archaeology Department, recognizes
a senior scholar who has made distinguished
contributions to archaeology through his
or her fieldwork, publications, and/or teaching.
Learn about Professor Wiseman's research
here.
November 2007
BU Climbs in London
Times Rankings
The London Times Educational
Supplement, in its 2007 rankings of the
world's top 200 universities, has moved
Boston University up to 47th on its list,
from 66th last year. This impressive showing
places BU 19th among U.S. universities.
Read more on the Times
site (login required to view rankings);
download a
PDF of the Times' Top 200 Universities.
Faculty Productivity
Distinguishes BU, CAS in National Index
more
>>
Minding Her Business
Economics and mathematics
major Jalpa Bhavsar was
a member of the winning team in the Simon
Graduate School Early Leaders Case Competition,
held November 9-10 at the University
of Rochester. She was also voted Most Valuable
Player by her team. The Early Leaders Case
Competition brings current undergraduate
students to Rochester to compete in a business
case competition designed to simulate decisions
faced by business leaders across the globe.
Once on Simon's campus, participants are
divided into teams, and players face tight
deadline requirements under which they must
display considerable creativity and problem-solving
skills. Each team provides a case analysis
and recommendations to a panel of judges
comprising Simon School professors and alumni
who evaluate the teams based on the originality
of the proposed solution, the depth and
insightfulness of analysis, and the relevance
of the presentation. In this year's competition,
the students were given a Harvard
Business School case on how Ikea,
a large retail store, should further its
growth strategies. Jalpa shares the $7,000
first place prize with her teammates (two
from Rochester, one from SUNY Brockport,
and one from Columbia).
Econometric Society
Welcomes Perron
Professor of Economics
Pierre Perron has become
a fellow of the Econometric
Society, the most prestigious learned
society in economics, with world-wide membership.
Fellowship in the society, which is dedicated
to advancing economic theory in its relation
to statistics and mathematics, is an honor
that is highly valued in the field. Perron
is co-editor of the Econometrics
Journal.
AAAS Fellowship for
Two
Professor of Psychology
Howard Eichenbaum and Research
Professor of Earth Sciences Maureen
Raymo have been elected as fellows
of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science
(AAAS), the world's leading general
scientific society (and publisher of Science
magazine.) They and other new fellows will
be recognized for their contributions to
science and technology at the Fellows Forum
to be held on February 16, 2008, during
the AAAS Annual Meeting in Boston.
Honored Internationally
Two recent honors for
members of the Department of International
Relations: Ambassador Husain Haqqani
delivered the 2007-2008 Kleh Family Foundation
Distinguished Lecture, Pakistan, speaking
on "The West's Troubled & Troubling
Ally," on October 25 at Two Temple
Place in London. And Visiting Professor
Carlos Blanco has been
awarded the Order of the Maracaibo Lake
(1st class) of the State of Zulia in the
Republic of Venezuela.
October 2007
A Philosophical Exploration
of What It Means to Forgive
Using examples from throughout
history, from Achilles to South Africa's
apartheid era, Professor of Pilosophy Charles
Griswold examines the process of
forgiving in his new book, Forgiveness:
A Philosophical Exploration, published
in September by Cambridge University Press.
more
>>
DOE Upward Bound Math Science Grant for
Goldberg and BU
The U.S. Department of
Education has awarded Boston University
a five-year, $1.25 million Upward Bound
Math Science grant to help low-income and
first-generation college-bound students
prepare to succeed in college-level math
and science. Bennett Goldberg,
chair of the Department of Physics, is co-principal
investigator. more
>>
BU's Ambitious Long-Range Plan Features
Key Role for Arts and Sciences more
>>
A Career on the Rise
Carrie Preston,
assistant professor of women’s studies
and English, has been honored with one of
three University-wide Peter Paul Career
Development Professorships. These professorships
are awarded competitively for a three-year
term to faculty members in the first two
years of their appointment to BU. As created
by alumnus and trustee Peter T. Paul, they
support the research and scholarship of
excellent young faculty early in their careers. Preston received
her Ph.D. from Rutgers University. Her research
and teaching interests include women’s
literature and performance, modernism/postmodernism,
feminist theory, gender studies, silent
film, and dance. Her work on Isadora Duncan
and modernist performance has appeared in
Modernism/Modernity and Theatre
Journal. Her book, Solo Performance:
A New Genealogy of Women’s Modernism,
is nearing completion. This year she also
won a National Endowment for the Humanities
grant to conduct research in Dublin on the
dance plays of W .B. Yeats and performance
in James Joyce’s Ulysses.
Teaching Honors for
the Dean
Dean Virginia
Sapiro has been recognized by Pi
Sigma Alpha (the National Political
Science Honor Society) and the American
Political Science Association for Outstanding
Teaching in Political Science.
Outstanding Contribution
to Physics
Professor H.
Eugene Stanley is the 2008 recipient
of the Julius Edgar Lilienfeld Prize from
the American
Physical Society. The prize, recognizing
a most outstanding contribution to physics,
consists of $10,000 (donated to Boston University),
a certificate citing the contributions made
by the recipient, and expenses to cover
the three lectures that the recipient will
give at an APS meeting, a research university,
and a predominantly undergraduate institution.
Stanley won the award for his research in
understanding the 64 anomalies of liquid
water in a coherent "physical"
fashion via the new concept of a liquid-liquid
(as opposed to a liquid-gas) critical point.
This work was performed by Gene and his
colleagues, visitors, and graduate students
in the Physics Department at Boston University.
September 2007
New NSF Grant Aims
to Bring the Internet to the Disabled
Professor of Computer
Science Margrit Betke was
recently awarded a three-year National Science
Foundation grant entitled "Intelligent
Interfaces to Empower People with Disabilities
to Participate in the Information Society,"
in the amount of $386K. The award will support
Betke's work on developing camera-based
interfaces for individuals who suffer from
extreme paralysis. The goal is to provide
these people with full access to the Internet's
various media -- for example, giving them
the ability to browse the Web, post messages,
or email friends -- and thereby enhance
their emotional well-being and alleviate
the frustration caused by limited access.
A full abstract of the award is available
on the NSF
web site.
New Partnership, New
Scholarships
Professor Stan
Sclaroff, chair of the Department
of Computer Science, has announced a new
partnership with Transition
Consulting Limited (TCL), whereby TCL
will offer three scholarships, each lasting
one year, at $2,600 per student. The primary
goal of this scholarship program is to promote
awareness of TCL and modern software testing
methods. The scholarships will be offered
to any student with a major in Computer
Science who will be enrolled for the forthcoming
academic year. In addition to the scholarship
money, winners will be offered the opportunity
of taking a summer internship with TCL,
although winners are not obliged to take
an internship. Read the announcement here.
Read a press release from TCL here.
Women’s Studies
Program to Host International Project on
Gender and Development more
>>
Exploring the Sociology
of Mental Illness more
>>
Big Honors for Small
Linguistics Group
Two of the three linguists
in the Linguistics section of the new Department
of Romance Studies have won major National
Science Foundation grants in recent months.
Earlier this year Jonathan Barnes
was awarded an NSF grant for his work on
a project exploring the “Prosody of
American English.” The latest NFS
winner is Carol Neidle,
who, with Computer Science chair Stan
Slcaroff and Vassilis Athitsos
(GRS’06), now an assistant professor
at the University of Texas at Arlington,
is at work on a project titled “Large
Lexicon Gesture Representation, Recognition,
and Retrieval.” The grant will support
research on computer-based recognition of
ASL signs. more
>>
Religion Blogs
BU's Religion Department
is all over the Washington Post/Newsweek
blog On
Faith these days. Religion faculty Stephen
Prothero, Paula Fredriksen, Elie Wiesel,
and Donna Freitas are all
panelists, part of an eclectic and highly
distinguished group of scholars, journalists,
and religious leaders from all traditions.
And CAS junior and religion major Shari
Rabin is a student panelist for
the blog's student-directed Faithbook
section. Here first post is here.
And More on Religion
. . .
Religious Literacy:
What Every American Needs to Know —
And Doesn’t, by Religion Department
chair Stephen Prothero,
has won a 2007 Quill Book Award in the category
of Religion/Spirituality, as announced on
the Today show on September 10. The
Quills are a "consumer's choice"
awards program for books, supported by NBC
and Reed Business Information. They celebrate
the best adult and children's books of the
year in 19 popular categories. You can vote
for Prothero's book as the Quills Book of
the Year here;
the winner will be announced on October
22. And read Bostonia's
article about Prothero's work here.
CNS's Carpenter Wins
IEEE Pioneer Award
Professor Gail
Carpenter of the Department
of Cognitive and Neural Systems has
won this year's IEEE Neural Networks Pioneer
Award of the IEEE Computational Intelligence
Society. This is one of the most prestigious
awards in the field of neuromorphic technology.
Carpenter is the director of BU's CELEST
Technology Lab and is a leader in the field
of neuromorphic technology. She is the first
woman ever to have received this award.
The IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers) is the world's leading professional
association for the advancement of technology.
Political Science Honors
Recent news from the
2007 annual meeting of the American
Political Science Association, held
August 30-September 2 in Chicago: Two members
of BU's Department
of Political Science garnered accolades.
Professor John Gerring
served as the focus of an "Author Meets
Critics" roundtable, in which a distinguished
panel discussed his book Case Study
Research: Principles and Practices.
Gerring also chaired a roundtable on "Experiments,
Natural Experiments, and the Comparative
Study of Institutions." And Assistant
Professor Douglas Kriner
was presented the CQ Press Award for the
best paper in the Legislative Studies Division
given at the 2006 APSA Meeting. The paper
is titled, “Hail to the Chief: Two
Mechanisms of Congressional Influence Over
Presidential War-Making.”
Three ACLS Awards for
English
Three faculty members
from the English
Department are the recipients of rigorously
competitive fellowships from the
American Council of Learned Societies,
the preeminent representative of humanities
scholarship in America. Professor William
Carroll will use his fellowship
to complete work on “The Tragedy of
Succession: Shakespeare in History,”
which engages Shakespearean drama in the
context of the central political issue of
early modern England—the theory and
practice of monarchical succession. Professor
James Winn will continue
his broad study of early-eighteenth century
British culture, a project entitled “Queen
Anne Style: An Interdisciplinary History
of British Culture, 1702-1714,” which
explores the period’s tendency to
read all the arts politically. Assistant
Professor Maurice Lee,
recipient of the ACLS’s Charles A.
Ryskamp Fellowship for junior faculty, is
conducting research for a book project titled
“Chance, Skepticism, and Belief in
Nineteenth-Century American Literature,”
which will show how changing concepts of
chance shape literary encounters with skepticism
in the work of Poe, Thoreau, Douglass, Melville,
and Dickinson.
BU's Creative Writing
Program: In the Top 10
The August issue of Atlantic
Monthly contained an interesting article
and an Arts and Sciences boost: “Where
Great Writers are Made: Assessing America’s
Top Graduate Writing Programs,” which
explored the challenges that prestigious
programs have had in staying prestigious,
important, and well-funded. Boston University’s
Creative
Writing Program makes the magazine’s
list of the Ten
Top Graduate Programs in Creative Writing.
BU is also on top-five lists for notable
alumni and best faculty.
CAS
to Debut New Eatery in Basement
The College of Arts and
Sciences will unveil a new full-service
eatery in the basement this October, following
a summer-long renovation of the formerly
dark and gloomy vending area. Einstein
Bros. Bagels will anchor the space,
serving breakfast and deli sandwiches, paninis,
salads, and, of course, fresh bagels and
coffee from early morning to 8 p.m. The
space, with wireless internet connection,
central air conditioning, and a modern decor,
will be glassed-off from the corridor outside.
Seating options will include booths, tables,
and tall chairs at a bar that will run along
the window that looks out onto the hallway
and computer kiosks opposite.
Why We Need Liberal
Arts: BU Today Chats with Dean Sapiro
part one >>
part
two >>
Summer 2007
Two New Departments
Take Place of MFLL
more>>
Dean
Sapiro Offers 8 Steps to "Graduating
Well"
more >>
Virginia
Sapiro named Dean of Arts and Sciences
more >>
CAS
Biology Professor Wins 2007 Metcalf Award
more
>>
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