University Names Vice President of Research

Andrei E. Ruckenstein, the former director of the Rutgers University BioMaPS Institute for Quantitative Biology and a professor in the Rutgers department of physics and astronomy, has been named Boston University’s vice president of research. Provost David Campbell announced the appointment, saying Ruckenstein will play a central role in enabling, fostering, and enhancing all forms of research, scholarship, and creative activity.

“Andrei Ruckenstein is a superb scientist, who has made significant contributions to both condensed matter physics and quantitative biology,” says Campbell. “He is also a proven leader and scientific administrator, having served as the president of the Aspen Center for Physics, the founder of the Rutgers BioMaPS Institute for Quantitative Biology, and the creator of the Institute for Advanced Study in his native Romania. He has received numerous prizes and awards, including the Senior Humboldt Prize.”

Campbell says the new vice president of research will oversee the expansion of BU’s research magazine to include all aspects of the University’s scholarship and creative activity. He will also work to strengthen existing research ties — and create new ones — between the Charles River and Medical Campuses and will seek to create synergies among related research efforts by focusing on core facilities.

Ruckenstein says he is flattered and energized to join BU’s leadership in this time of change and tremendous promise for the University. “I hope to positively impact the quality of all intellectual and creative enterprise on campus and increase the dialogue between the visual and performing arts, humanities, social sciences, and science within the University,” he says. “I also hope to contribute to improving the way in which we interface with the city of Boston and the community at large. I feel that much can be done to increase the public’s awareness of the accomplishments and great talent of our faculty and the strengths and depth of our programs.”

Ruckenstein says he hopes to focus on research and scholarship in areas involving the interface between biology, medicine, physical and mathematical sciences, and engineering. He cited global affairs as an example of a field involving broad interdisciplinary discussions between humanists, social scientists, politicians, and scientists across the University. His efforts, he says, will focus on addressing societal problems concerning health, education, and the environment.

Ruckenstein earned a Ph.D. in physics at Cornell University. He was a postdoctoral fellow and a member of the technical staff at AT&T Bell Laboratories for two years. He joined Rutgers in 1988 as an associate professor, after beginning his teaching career at the University of California, San Diego, in 1985. In 2000 he was named head of BioMaPS, an interdisciplinary research program focused on educating life science researchers with strong quantitative backgrounds in molecular biophysics, structural biology, computational biology, and bioinformatics.

Ruckenstein is president of the Aspen Center for Physics, an organization funded primarily by the National Science Foundation that promotes organized research in physics, astrophysics, and related fields through a program of individual and collaborative research, seminars, workshops, and conferences. He serves on the center’s scientific advisory board and was a member of its board of trustees for three years.

He is also the cofounder and cochair of the board of trustees of the Aspen Science Center, a Colorado-based organization that seeks to bridge the gap between science research and education.

In 1994, Ruckenstein won the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Prize, Germany’s highest research award for senior scientists and scholars in all disciplines. He also received Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowships (1988–93), awarded annually to the best young faculty members in specified fields of science.

Art Jahnke can be reached at jahnke@bu.edu.