InfoCenter
BU Firsts and Special Achievements
Boston University was the first university to open all its divisions to female students (1869).
The School of Medicine began as the New England Female Medical College in 1848, one of the first medical schools for women in the United States, and became the first coeducational medical college in the world when BU took over operations in 1873.
In 1875, Boston University professor Alexander Graham Bell received a year’s salary advance to allow him to pursue his research. The following year, in a Boston University laboratory, he invented the telephone.
Boston University was the first American university to award a PhD to a woman, classical scholar Helen Magill, in 1877.
Anna Oliver, an 1878 graduate of the School of Theology, was the first woman to receive a degree in theology in the United States. Although the Methodist Church would not ordain her, she did serve as a pastor to several churches.
Law School graduate Lelia Robinson Sawtelle, Class of 1881, was the first woman admitted to the bar in Massachusetts.
African-born Dr. Solomon Carter Fuller, an 1897 graduate of the School of Medicine, became the first black psychiatrist in the United States.
Goodwill Industries was founded by a Boston University graduate, Edgar Helms, while he was teaching Applied Christianity at the School of Theology.
Boston University established the nation’s first academic program in public relations in 1947.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. received his Ph.D. from Boston University in 1955. After receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, he presented his manuscripts, records, and personal papers to the University’s Mugar Memorial Library.
In 1961, Boston University was one of the first institutions in the nation to introduce the combined liberal arts and medical education program leading to the MD degree in six years.
In 1965, Boston University established the nation’s first combined cancer research and teaching laboratory at its Medical Center.
Former women’s track coach Joan Benoit, winner of the Boston Marathon, went on to represent the United States in the 1984 Olympic Games and won the gold medal in the first women’s marathon at the Olympic Games.
Boston University contributed four key players, including captain Mike Eruzione, to the United States Olympic Ice Hockey team that skated to the gold medal victory at Lake Placid in 1980.
In affirmation of the University’s international reputation of excellence, two distinguished heads of state, President George Bush and French President François Mitterand, spoke and received honorary degrees at the Commencement ceremony in 1989.
There are currently three Nobel Prize winners teaching at Boston University: Sheldon Glashow (1979, Physics), Elie Wiesel (1986, Peace), and Osamu Shimomura (2008, Chemistry).
There are two Nobel Prize winners who formerly taught at Boston University: Derek Walcott (1992, Literature) retired from teaching in the Creative Writing Department in 2008. Saul Bellow (1976, Literature) was a Professor Emeritus of the University Professors program at the time of his death in 2005.
For a complete list, visit the BU Timeline.
