Message from the Chair

Welcome!

The Department of Health Sciences at Boston University is committed to excellence in research and teaching. We provide the solid training that leads to a competitive edge in careers in health professions and biomedical research. The department is located in Sargent College on the Charles River Campus of Boston University and offers programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels in 3 areas: Physiology, Nutrition and Health Science.  I encourage you to peruse the details of these programs on their individual web pages.

Our programs and faculty are growing, with 2 new tenure track faculty members joining us this year, Drs. Kee Chan (Health Science program) and Mahasweta Girgenrath (Physiology programs) and with my own research group moving to BU just last spring.

Our faculty have interdisciplinary interests. Research areas in the department include cellular and molecular physiology, cytoskeletal biology, protein-protein interactions, apoptosis, cognition and neural information processing, the psychosocial and genetic bases of perinatal disorders and their public health implications, mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases and preterm labor as well as obesity and cardiovascular disease research. The department holds nearly $4 million in research funding and 3 of our faculty members are currently serving on NIH peer review committees.

The department includes 47 faculty, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, and technical and administrative staff. The size of the department facilitates individualized mentorship and research collaborations.  Many of our faculty hold joint appointments in departments on the medical campus.  We have an active and involved group of adjunct faculty and affiliated clinicians who co-mentor our graduate students and provide practicum training.  In addition, our highly regarded Nutrition clinical training program operates out of the Health Sciences Department in partnership with area hospitals.

For further information beyond that contained in these web pages you are welcome to contact myself or the appropriate Program Director: Dr. Robbie Durschlag, nutrition programs; Dr. Eileen O’Keefe, Health Science program; or Dr. Judy Schotland, physiology programs.

Kathleen G. Morgan, Ph.D.
Chair, Department of Health Sciences