President Emeritus Chobanian elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Boston University President Emeritus Aram Chobanian was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences last week, joining Al Gore, Spike Lee, Sandra Day O’Connor, and other notables being inducted into the prestigious organization.   

The academy, which was founded in 1780, welcomed 203 new fellows for 2007. They will be welcomed with an induction ceremony in October in Cambridge, Mass. Chobanian (Hon.’06), a University professor, professor of medicine and pharmacology, and the John I. Sandson Distinguished Professor of Health Sciences, joins other recent BU fellows Ha Jin (GRS’94), a College of Arts and Sciences professor of creative writing, who was inducted last year, and Laurence Kotlikoff, a CAS professor of economics, who was named a fellow in 2005.

“It was a pleasant surprise,” Chobanian says. He was in Hilton Head, S.C., giving lectures on cardiovascular disease and hypertension at a School of Medicine postgraduate education conference when he received the news.

Chobanian joined the MED faculty in 1962 and was founding director in 1973 of the Whitaker Cardiovascular Institute. He oversaw its rapid development into a center for pioneering research into the biological and clinical aspects of cardiovascular diseases. He became MED dean in 1988 and Medical Campus provost in 1996.

During his administration, Boston Medical Center, a merger of Boston University Medical Center Hospital and Boston City Hospital, was created, and BioSquare Research Park was established with the construction of its first two buildings.

Chobanian was president of the University from November 2003 to August 2005.

A specialist in cardiovascular research, he was principal investigator on grants exceeding $1 million annually for 25 years. He has published more than 250 papers and 2 books and currently chairs the Publications Committee of the Massachusetts Medical Society/New England Journal of Medicine.

Chobanian returned to teaching after leaving the presidency. “I give some lectures at the School of Medicine, do a fair amount of advising of undergraduate and graduate students on both campuses, and work with the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute,” he says. “So I’ve been getting back into things I’d been doing prior to the time I became dean of the medical school. I am doing more writing and have papers in medical journals that have recently come out. It’s good to be back to the true academic life of a professor.”

The AAAS regularly hosts symposia and facilitates interdisciplinary studies and public policy research in a number of areas. Fellows are nominated and elected by current academy members. They “are selected through a highly competitive process that recognizes individuals who have made preeminent contributions to their disciplines and to society at large,” says Emilio Bizzi, academy president. Other 2007 fellows include Google chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt, economist Murray Weidenbaum, New Yorker writer Roger Angell, and pianist Emanuel Ax.

“Throughout its history, the academy has convened the leading thinkers of the day, from diverse perspectives, to participate in projects and studies that advance the public good,” according to Leslie Berlowitz, AAAS CEO. “I am confident that this distinguished class of new Fellows will continue that tradition of cherishing knowledge and shaping the future.”

Taylor McNeil can be reached at tmcneil@bu.edu.