Recent Faculty Promotions

From Dr. Jean Morrison, University Provost and Chief Academic Officer
and Dr. Karen Antman, Medical Campus Provost and Dean of the School of Medicine

On behalf of President Brown, we are delighted to announce the promotion of 21 members of our faculty on the Charles River Campus to the rank of Associate Professor with tenure, 1 to the rank of Full Professor with tenure, and 3 promotions to the rank of Associate Professor for non-tenure track faculty members, and 14 members of our Medical Campus faculty to the rank of Associate Professor and 3 to the rank of Full Professor.

These promotions and awards of tenure mark an especially proud moment for the BU community, as we’ve had the pleasure of watching these talented women and men develop from promising junior faculty into scholars and teachers of national impact and recognition. In fields as diverse as the sciences, humanities, mathematics, medicine, business, and law, these faculty members have fulfilled the promise we saw in them as they began their careers at Boston University. They are having a demonstrable impact in their disciplines and are excelling as teachers in our classrooms. We see great things ahead for them and are pleased they will continue to advance their research and scholarship at BU:

Stephan Anderson, MED, Radiology, specializes in in-vivo and in-vitro imaging, combining elements of mechanical engineering and nanotechnology to produce translational breakthroughs in the study of atherosclerosis and steatohepatosis. He is Director of General Radiography, Section Chief for the Division of Abdominal Imaging, and Director of Computed Tomography for his department. A past winner of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center’s Fleischner Society Research Award, he has received NSF grant support and published one book, seven book chapters, and dozens of articles in major medical journals. He has been promoted to Professor.

Jonathan Appavoo, CAS, Computer Science, specializes in computer operating systems, with a focus on parallel computing. Internationally recognized among the leaders in his field, he is widely cited for developing new system software and applications for future data-center scale systems and for work on hybrid “smart” computing systems designed to transparently adapt and evolve over time. He has received significant NSF grant support, including a CAREER Award, for his research and his findings have been published in numerous top journals. He has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.

Laurence Beck, Jr., MED, Medicine, specializes in human membranous nephropathy. His seminal discovery, identifying the major antigen in idiopathic membranous nephropathy (IMN), is considered one of the top nephrologic breakthroughs in the past two decades. His finding has opened a whole field of investigation and interest into the pathobiology of membranous nephropathy (MN) and has been awarded international patents, the latter of which led to licensing and approval of two commercial immunodiagnostics assays for MN by the FDA in 2014. He has been independently funded by a series of external research awards and grants since 2007, including a grant from NIH/National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. He has been promoted to Associate Professor.

Margret Bell, MED, Psychiatry, specializes in the treatment of veterans who have experienced sexual assault or harassment while in the military. She serves as National Deputy Director of the VA’s Military Sexual Trauma Support Team and has developed a range of policy and educational initiatives focused on how victims of sexual assault and other traumas experience their subsequent interactions with community agencies, institutions, and other systems. She has created and implemented training programs in the treatment of military sexual trauma that are now required for VA primary care providers, as well as policies to promote effective, victim-sensitive interventions and programs. She has been promoted to Associate Professor.

Kevin Black, CAS, Physics, specializes in high-energy particle physics, focusing on the pursuit and understanding of some of nature’s most fundamental physical forces and particles. Selected as a “U.S. ATLAS Scholar” in 2014 at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva, Switzerland, he has distinguished himself internationally in the recording and analysis of significant experimental results and as an organizational leader among LHC scientists in the U.S. A frequent international speaker, he has received extensive NSF and Department of Energy funding to support his research and has authored or co-authored nearly 500 publications in premier journals. He has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.

Boris Nicolas Bloch, MED, Radiology, specializes in the improvement of clinical care for patients suffering from breast and prostate cancer. He has developed novel methods to advance the effectiveness of MRI scans for these diseases. His work correlating magnetic resonance data with histology, gene expression profiles, and other biomarkers has aided in early diagnosis and treatment and contributed to the new fields of radiomics and radiogenomics. He is a principal or co-principal investigator on multiple grants from the Department of Defense and NIH and is co-investigator on a Coulter Translational Research Partnership Award at BU. He has been promoted to Associate Professor.

Cynthia Bradham, CAS, Biology, specializes in developmental biology, investigating how animals develop from single-celled zygotes into multicellular organisms with distinct tissues and cell structures. She is recognized among the leading innovators in the research of sea urchins and the integration of newer systems biology approaches to identify genes and signaling pathways and better understand skeletal patterning – information with potential relevance to a range of developmental diseases. Her work has been funded by the NSF, and she has authored dozens of peer-reviewed publications, three book chapters, and has delivered numerous invited talks. She has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.

François Brochet, Questrom, Accounting, specializes in mainstream accounting, with a focus on the role of corporate insiders and individual managers in capital markets. He is a member of the editorial board of The Accounting Review and has produced foundational research on the effects of regulatory reform, insider trading, and managerial traits – including myopia – on the performance and culture of firms and on the market at large. The recipient of Questrom’s Full-Time MBA Favorite Elective Professor award in 2015, he is a regularly invited conference speaker and has published in premier field journals. He has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.

Peter Buston, CAS, Biology, specializes in evolutionary and behavioral ecology, using tropical reef fishes to address fundamental questions in ecology, evolution, and behavior. He has earned widespread recognition for research on the connectivity of social animals and the patterns and consequences of larval fish dispersal – work credited with having significant impact on the study of marine evolutionary ecology and conservation management. Funded by two major NSF grants, he has produced more than 30 peer-reviewed publications and delivered dozens of invited lectures and conference presentations. He has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.

David Carballo, CAS, Archaeology, specializes in the study of urbanism, households, religion, political evolution, and ancient economies in Columbian Mesoamerica. Recognized among the top experts in human development from the earliest farming villages to the Aztec period and its transition to colonial New Spain, he serves on editorial boards for journals in France and Mexico and is performing his current research at the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Teotihuacan. Currently supported by two NSF grants, he has authored more than 50 publications, including four books and 18 book chapters. He has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.

Luis Carvalho, CAS, Mathematics & Statistics, specializes in computational statistics, with a focus on discrete and high-dimensional inference problems reflective of the modern era. He is regarded as a leading Bayesian statistical modeler, applying his expertise to diverse subject areas including bioinformatics, transportation modeling, geography and remote sensing, and social network analysis. A previous Hariri Institute Junior Faculty Fellow, he has been funded by NASA and NSF grants and published numerous articles in top journals, alongside five book chapters. He has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.

Dana Clancy, CFA, Visual Arts, specializes in figurative painting, with a focus on dimensional art that references real spaces and architectural models. She is regarded among the region’s top emerging painters, her work has been shown in major galleries in Boston, New York, and Como, Italy, and her work is held in the collections of the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park. She has been featured twice in the New American Paintings magazine, been an invited lecturer and critic at numerous U.S. art schools, and last year hosted a special presentation at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum as part of Lee Mingwei’s Living Room project. She has been promoted to Associate Professor.

Kristen Coogan, CFA, Visual Arts, specializes in graphic design, with a focus on the growing field of business information design. She has produced information graphics for top multinational firms, including Johnson & Johnson and Fidelity for use in translating market research and presenting business strategies to high-level executives. The author of a book and numerous published essays and design projects, she has twice won the AIGA Best of New England award, as well as a Fulbright Specialist Grant in St. Petersburg, Russia. She has been promoted to Associate Professor.

Alik Farber, MED, Surgery, and Radiology, specializes in peripheral arterial disease and critical limb ischemia (CLI), with a focus on endovascular therapy and open vascular surgery. He is Program Director of the Vascular Surgery Fellowship, Clinical Director of the Vascular Surgery Section, and Co-Director of the Vascular Noninvasive Laboratory at Boston Medical Center. A recipient of numerous major grants, including a $25 million award from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for an endovascular-versus-surgical therapy trial, he has been named one of Boston Magazine‘s “Top Doctors” and has published nine textbook chapters and dozens of peer reviewed articles and editorials. He has been promoted to Professor.

Paula Gardiner, MED, Family Medicine, specializes in integrative medicine and the safety and quality of dietary supplements, with a focus on underserved populations in community settings. As Assistant Director for Boston Medical Center’s Program for Integrative Medicine & Health Disparities, her research concentration involves chronic pain and evidence based integrative medicine access in low-income patients. She has published more than 70 reviewed papers and is primary investigator on numerous NIH studies, including one measuring the effectiveness of the Integrative Medicine Group Visit to support health behavior change and reduce pain and stress. She has been promoted to Associate Professor.

Timothy Gardner, CAS, Biology, specializes in systems neuroscience, using songbirds as a model system for research in sensory-motor learning. His translational innovations, which include new technology for recording neural activity in awake and behaving animals, have garnered numerous prestigious prizes, including an NIH Brain Initiative Grant and the BU Innovation Career Development Professorship in 2014. Currently supported by four major NIH grants, he has published extensively and delivered dozens of conference presentations and invited talks. He has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.

Arvin Garg, MED, Pediatrics, specializes in children’s health, with a focus on community pediatrics and addressing the social determinants of health within the medical home. His work screening high-risk families for social determinants of disease is recognized as a national model and has been incorporated at academic medical centers across the country. He is principal or co-principal investigator on grants from NIH/National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, and the Charles H. Hood Foundation and sits on numerous committees, including the Academic Pediatric Association’s Task Force on Childhood Poverty. He has been promoted to Associate Professor.

Jennifer Greif Green, SED, Special Education, specializes in the treatment of children and young people with mental health challenges, focusing on the elimination of institutional barriers to mental health services in school districts. She has achieved national prominence for research into bullying as a mental health challenge, winning a 2014 Alberti Center Early Career Award and co-founding the Social Adjustment & Bullying Prevention Laboratory at BU. Sponsored by three current grants, her research has led to nearly 70 refereed publications with more than 4,000 citations, alongside seven book chapters and dozens of invited lectures and national conference presentations. She has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.

Stine Grodal, Questrom, Strategy & Innovation, specializes in the dual fields of sociology and management, exploring the social and cognitive dynamics behind industry emergence. Regarded among the top international scholars in her cohort for research into dominant categories and industry life cycles, she has won numerous competitive prizes for her writing, including the 2015 Positive Organization Scholarship Best Paper Award and Questrom’s 2014 Broderick Award for Research Excellence. She has been supported by two NSF grants and published four book chapters, more than 50 presentations, and numerous articles in top field journals. She has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.

Amresh Hanchate, MED, Medicine, specializes in health economics, concentrating on issues related to disparities in care and health outcomes. His work combines economics, health services, and disparities research, using econometric methods to identify patterns in health care utilization and reveal disparities in use of service, outcomes of care, or costs of care. Since 2008, he has been funded as principal investigator on eight research awards from the NIH, the VA, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. He has been promoted to Associate Professor.

Angela Ho, CAS, Biology, specializes in molecular neurobiology, using mouse models to help identify the genetic determinants of Alzheimer’s disease. She has earned national attention for discoveries of proteins and molecular mechanisms that underlie plaque formation and lead to Alzheimer’s development. The winner of the Alzheimer’s Association’s National Research Award and last year’s Patricia McLellan Leavitt Research Award from CAS, she has received significant NIH funding and authored dozens of peer-reviewed publications, invited lectures, and conference presentations. She has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.

William Huntting Howell, CAS, English, specializes in early American literature with emphasis on print history and material culture. His debut book, Against Self-Reliance: The Arts of Dependence in the Early United States (2015), has garnered considerable acclaim, as have his efforts as co-editor of a new edition of Frank Webb’s Civil War novel, The Garies and Their Friends (2016). A former Junior Faculty Fellow with the BU Center for the Humanities, he has authored more than a dozen articles, essays, and reviews in premier scholarly publications, serves on two editorial boards, and has delivered numerous invited talks and conference presentations. He has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.

Deborah Jaramillo, COM, Film & Television, specializes in television studies, focusing on the collision and coexistence of politics, culture, and aesthetics in media. Her highly-regarded first book, Ugly War, Pretty Package: How CNN and Fox News Made the Invasion of Iraq High Concept (2009), approached cable news coverage from the perspective of film and television studies, while a forthcoming book explores the self-regulation of the television industry in the 1950s. A two-time Ford Fellow and past winner of COM’s Becker Family Teacher of the Year Award, she has authored five book chapters, as well as numerous conference presentations and articles for scholarly journals. She has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.

William Johnson, MED, Medicine, and SPH, Biostatistics, specializes in computational biology and biostatistics, developing new tools to investigate the core components of disease prognoses and causes and help determine effective regimens for individual patients based on risk factors. An emerging leader in new methods of analysis of CHIP-seq and other gene expression techniques, he has published in CellProceedings of the National Academy of SciencesBiometricsNature Reviews GeneticsAnnals of Applied Statistics, and Biostatistics and received NIH funding as both a principal and co-principal investigator. He has been promoted to Associate Professor.

Ajay Joshi, ENG, Electrical & Computer Engineering, specializes in computer architecture and digital VLSI circuit design, with additional focus on silicon photonics, Network-on-Chip (NoC) design, and hardware security. His seminal writings on silicon photonic network architecture have elevated him among the premier authorities in the field, while his current research identifying network Trojan viruses in digital circuits is earning similar praise. An NSF CAREER Award winner and past recipient of the College of Engineering’s Dean’s Catalyst Award and his department’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, he has been funded extensively through NSF and NASA grants. He has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.

Matthew Layne, MED, Biochemistry, specializes in cell and molecular biology, focusing on the development of therapeutic inhibitors to regulate fibroblasts. His work has had broad implications for a number of diseases, most notably atherosclerosis, pulmonary fibrosis, and obesity. A pioneer in the cloning of ACLP (a secreted, collagen-binding protein that enhances fibrosis), he has been able to use ACLP inhibitors as therapeutic reagents to treat fibroproliferative diseases such as scleroderma. The project is now supported by a substantial grant from the Pfizer Centers for Therapeutic Innovation—one of only two thus far awarded to MED faculty. He has been promoted to Associate Professor.

Cara Lewis, SAR, Physical Therapy & Athletic Training, specializes in musculoskeletal biomechanics, developing new therapies and technologies to better understand hip movement and prevent joint damage and pain. A regularly invited speaker at international conferences and active member in numerous scientific organizations, she is recognized as a leading expert and innovator in the application of movement science to health and wellness. She has been funded extensively by NIH and the American College of Rheumatology, is a past Peter Paul Career Development Professor at BU, and has published dozens of widely cited articles in scholarly journals. She has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.

Nancy Miller, MED, Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, specializes in clinical microbiology and pathogen diagnostics, working to develop innovative new tools to aid in detection of infectious disease. She serves as Medical Director for Clinical Microbiology and Molecular Diagnostics at Boston Medical Center and is principal investigator on a variety of industry-related projects that build and test new diagnostic devices. She has published in the LancetJournal of Infectious DiseasesJournal of Clinical MicrobiologyJournal of Clinical Virology, and Journal of Infection and serves on the editorial board of the Annals of Clinical and Medical Microbiology. She has been promoted to Associate Professor.

Gustavo Mostoslavsky, MED, Medicine, specializes in stem cell biology, with a focus on genetic manipulation to assist in stem cell-based therapy of disease. He is Co-Director and founder of the Center for Regenerative Medicine (CReM) at MED and has won widespread recognition for developing and patenting a special tool, STEMCCA, that is capable of efficiently generating new stem cells to treat a variety of disorders, including sickle cell, renal, and several GI tract-related diseases. He has additionally earned considerable praise for his commitment to mentoring and training of BU undergraduates, MD and PhD students, postdocs, fellows, and visiting scientists in his lab. He has been promoted to Associate Professor.

Sean Mullen, CAS, Biology, specializes in integrative evolutionary biology, melding ecological fieldwork with a host of analytical approaches – from genetic to genomic – to understand the evolution of biodiversity. He has garnered significant attention in his field for foundational research on speciation genomics and the adaptive evolution of butterfly wing color pattern and mimicry. The recipient of a major NSF Dimensions of Biodiversity award, he has authored dozens of peer-reviewed articles in premier scholarly publications and is a regularly invited speaker at national conferences and symposia. He has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.

Michael Platt, MED, Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, specializes in diseases of the nose, sinuses, and anterior skull base, focusing on endoscopic management of disorders – from chronic sinusitis to nasal polyps – that can be accessed through a transnasal approach. He serves on numerous editorial boards, including the International Forum of Allergy and Rhinology and the American Rhinologic Society (ARS), and is an elected member-at-large on the American Academy of Otolaryngic Allergy (AAOA) board. He is funded by several major grants, among them a multiyear, multicenter, co-investigator award from the AAOA/ARS CORE to study Sleep Dysfunction in Chronic Sinusitis. He has been promoted to Associate Professor.

Teena Purohit, CAS, Religion, specializes in the history of Islam, focusing on conceptions of religion in modern Islam and the impact of colonialism on modern Muslim intellectual thought. An expert in Sanskrit and Urdu, she has published a critically acclaimed debut book, The Aga Khan Case: Religion and Identity in Colonial India (2012), with a second book, Making Islam Modern, in development. She has additionally published a book chapter and four refereed journal articles and last year received both an Institute for Critical Social Inquiry Fellowship and the Merlin Swartz Award in Islam and Muslim Studies. She has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.

Lee Quinton, MED, Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, specializes in the treatment of lung infections, focusing on the innate immune response to microorganisms to ensure it does not lead to further injury. He has received several prestigious fellowships, including one from the American Lung Association and a Jere Mead Fellowship from Harvard School of Public Health for outstanding postdoctoral fellows in respiratory research. A co-director of MED’s Physician Assistant Program, he is supported by major grants from NIH/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and serves on the editorial board for the American Journal of Physiology. He has been promoted to Associate Professor.

Valentina Sabino, MED, Pharmacology & Experimental Therapeutics, and Psychiatry, specializes in the neurobiology of addiction and stress-related disorders, using genetic models to study eating behavior and alcoholism. Co-Director of the Laboratory of Addictive Disorders, she is working toward the development of new therapeutic agents to alleviate alcohol addiction, as well as investigating the neurobiology of anxiety and depression. Her addiction work has been recognized twice by the Peter F. McManus Charitable Trust Grants, and she has received awards from NIH/National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. She has been promoted to Associate Professor.

Flora Sam, MED, Medicine, specializes in cardiovascular medicine, investigating the role of inter-tissue communication in cardiac remodeling and heart failure. An elected member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation and Fellow of the American College of Cardiology, she has earned national recognition for translational discoveries in the study of diastolic heart failure. She has been awarded numerous fellowships and awards from NIH and the American Heart Association, serves as a reviewer for grants for numerous NIH study sections, and has authored five book chapters and dozens of original research publications and invited reviews. She has been promoted to Professor.

Daniel Star, CAS, Philosophy, specializes in ethics, metaethics, and epistemology, exploring the dilemma of reconciling ordinary virtue and normative ethics. He published his debut book, Knowing Better: Virtue, Deliberation, and Normative Ethics in 2015 and is currently editing two anthologies, the Oxford Handbook of Reasons and Normativity and History of Ethics: Essential Readings with Commentary. The winner of numerous BU-based humanities awards for his writing, he has published two book chapters and numerous articles in premier philosophical journals. He has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.

Dustin Supa, COM, Public Relations, specializes in media relations, focusing on the use of visually persuasive devices and the application of modern critical social theory to public relations. Regarded among the top academic authorities in his field, he has emerged as a major scholarly presence and rising organizational leader within both the International Public Relations Research Conference and the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. He has garnered national awards for his writing, authoring two book chapters and 10 refereed journal articles, with a debut book, Effective Media Relations, forthcoming. He has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.

James Uden, CAS, Classical Studies, specializes in Latin poetry and prose of the Empire and Late Antiquity, the literary culture of Imperial Greece, and the transformation of Greek and Roman ideas in later periods. He authored his debut book, The Invisible Satirist: Juvenal and Second-Century Rome, in 2015 and has quickly earned recognition as one of the most productive scholars in his class. A former Peter Paul Career Development Professor at BU, he now serves as his department’s Director of Graduate Admissions and has published widely in prestigious journals on subjects ranging from Republican to late antique writers in poetry and prose. He has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.

Irena Vodenska, MET, Administrative Sciences, specializes in econophysics, a new field that melds physics and economics to better understand the dynamics of financial networks and predict market volatility. Recognized as a trailblazer in this emerging interdisciplinary field (particularly for her exploration of the 2008 subprime credit crisis), she has earned praise for far-reaching efforts in online course design and interactive virtual learning communities. She has published extensively in top economic and scientific journals, is a regularly invited speaker at international conferences, and has received grants from both the NSF and the European Union. She has been promoted to Associate Professor.

Richard Wainford, MED, Pharmacology & Experimental Therapeutics, and Medicine, specializes in cardiovascular medicine, investigating the pathophysiology of, and potential treatments for, hypertension. His current research focuses on the central neural control of kidney function and systemic arterial blood pressure. He has garnered significant international recognition for his work, receiving honors from the American Physiology Society, the International Society for Hypertension, and the American Heart Association’s Council on Hypertension. He serves as principal investigator on several NIH/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute awards. He has been promoted to Associate Professor.

David Webber, LAW, Law, specializes in civil procedure, focusing on diverse aspects of investment law, including shareholder activism, corporate governance, and shareholder litigation. A frequent invitee to testify or speak on corporate and pension governance issues, he is considered among the top corporate law scholars of his cohort, with policy recommendations regularly cited in high-profile cases and, in one recent instance, implemented by the Department of Labor. He has published scholarly articles and op-eds in premier law journals and newspapers, serves as a referee or reviewer at numerous academic conferences, and is a founding member of the BU Center for Finance, Law & Policy. He has been promoted to Professor, with tenure.

Min Ye, Pardee, International Relations, specializes in comparative political economy, China and India development, and Asian politics and security, with recent emphasis on China’s outbound investment and Silk Road initiative. She is recognized, both institutionally and internationally, as a leading Asian Studies scholar, with numerous prestigious fellowships in the U.S. and Asia and two published books, including, most recently, Diasporas and Foreign Direct Investment in China and India (2014). She has authored five book chapters and more than a dozen articles for scholarly journals and is credited with leading the design and launch of BU’s Asian Studies major. She has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.

Please join us in congratulating these exceptionally talented rising scholars, teachers, and researchers on their recent promotions and in wishing them continued success in their new positions. The standard of academic excellence they – and you – continue to set each day heralds an incredibly bright future for Boston University as both a research leader and launching pad for some of the nation’s finest faculty.

Recent Faculty Promotions – 5.12.16