Symposia
Celebrating Our Legacy, Forging Our Future —
Boston University and Beyond
James Collins
James Collins is University Professor and Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Boston University College of Engineering, and Co-Director of the Center for BioDynamics. Professor Collins’s research focuses on developing and implementing techniques and concepts from nonlinear dynamics and statistical physics to study and improve the function of physiological and biological systems. His interests include noise-enhanced sensory dynamics; random-walk analysis of human balance control; the development of an artificial vestibular control system; coupled nonlinear oscillators and locomotor central pattern generators; noise-shaping in networks of coupled neurons; dynamical control of cell cycle dynamics; and the design and construction of genetic applets. Professor Collins has received a number of awards, including a Rhodes Scholarship, the American Society of Biomechanics Young Scientist Award, and the Thomas Stephen Group Prize from the Engineering in Medicine Group of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers. He has published over sixty peer-reviewed journal articles and ninety conference abstracts. Professor Collins has received research support from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Whitaker Foundation, the Department of Energy, the Department of Education, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Office of Naval Research. In 2000, Professor Collins was elected a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. In the same year, he also received Boston University’s Metcalf Cup and Prize for Excellence in Teaching. In 2002 Professor Collins was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Physics in London. In 2003, he received a MacArthur Fellowship. He has a B.A. from the College of the Holy Cross and D.Phil. from the University of Oxford.
