At the Inauguration 2024 Research on Tap event, 12 of BU’s leading researchers gave quick-fire talks about their work and its potential impact on the world.

Inauguration 2024

Inauguration 2024 Research on Tap Celebrates BU’s Power to Bring Scholars Together to Better Our World

Event showcased some of BU’s star researchers, celebrating how they cross and blur disciplinary boundaries in the pursuit of change

From preventing pandemics to taking down cancer cells to making global economic policies more sustainable, Boston University researchers shared a glimpse into their work and how they are changing the world for the better at Wednesday’s Inauguration 2024 Research on Tap event. 

Part of the weeklong celebration marking this Friday’s formal installation of Melissa L. Gilliam as BU’s 11th president, the event at the Center for Computing & Data Sciences was billed as “a high-level showcase of BU’s research,” with some of the University’s leading experts discussing “how their work is making change.” Among the dozen presenters: a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” winner, a former White House advisor, a National Academy of Inventors Fellow, an expert advisor to the Brazilian presidency of the G20, and an American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow. 

“I think the set of speakers that we have today really demonstrates the unique power that a place like Boston University has to bring together top researchers across so many different fields,” Gloria Waters, University provost and chief academic officer, said in her opening remarks. “Our researchers are really united by their curiosity, their drive to discover new knowledge, and also their real goal—to advance ideas to foster a better world. They’re all leaders in their respective fields, and they’re also incredible teachers and leaders in the classroom.”

As a major research institution, BU produces a wealth of knowledge, findings, and translational solutions. According to the University’s research office, BU researchers produced 7,697 publications last year, an average of almost 150 per week, while there are more than 200 companies developing and selling products based on their discoveries. (Read about some of the latest BU breakthroughs and accomplishments on The Brink.) The long-running Research on Tap series provides a glimpse into that impressive output, featuring lightning talks by BU researchers, typically on a specific topic or question; each expert is given just four minutes (with a bell keeping everyone on track) and a handful of slides to dive into their work.

One of the central themes of the inauguration event was how much time BU researchers spend collaborating outside of their academic fields in pursuit of innovative ideas and approaches, blurring and breaking traditional disciplinary confines by working with colleagues from across BU—and beyond. It’s what Waters called “convergent research.” The Center for Computing & Data Sciences, built to make and amplify connections between a diverse array of fields—and designed to resemble a stack of books—provided a fitting setting for the event, with spectacular views of the Charles River and downtown Boston.

“All of the speakers are developing goals, ideas, and solutions that really transcend disciplinary boundaries,” said Waters, who previously led BU’s research enterprise. “And they are all topics that really do compel society to [make] some important changes [that really] make a difference in people’s lives. It demonstrates why a place like Boston University is among the world’s best universities and an engine for the production of new knowledge.”

From Single Cells to Global Projects

As the speakers jumped into their presentations, they introduced questions, problems, ideas, and solutions that went from the microscopic—like Xue Han, a College of Engineering professor of biomedical engineering, who talked about measuring cellular voltage to improve the treatment of neurological and psychiatric disorders—to the global, such as Nahid Bhadelia, a Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine associate professor of medicine, who shared a forthcoming AI-infused project that aims to report disease outbreaks to help detect, prevent, and respond to potential global pandemics.

The first speaker was Pamela Templer, a College of Arts & Sciences Distinguished Professor and chair of biology. An expert on environmental change, whose research has focused on how climate change and urbanization have impacted forests’ carbon cycles, Templer talked about how her work converged across multiple BU research pillars, including computing and data sciences, livable and resilient cities, social inequity, and global sustainability.

“I really believe it’s the collaborative nature of our environment at BU that allows us to do convergent work, whether it’s answering fundamental questions or society development questions,” said Templer, who directs the BU Graduate Program in Urban Biogeoscience and Environmental Health (BU URBAN). “To me, what’s most exciting is we get to prepare our students for the workforce and to be leaders on their own.”

Other speakers also showed how their research and advocacy were contributing to the fight against climate change, as well as pulling in experts from different disciplines: Chris Wells, a College of Communication associate professor of emerging media studies, talked about communicating climate research and fighting misinformation; Lucy Hutyra, a CAS Distinguished Professor and chair of Earth and environment, talked about the structure of cities and urban heat exposure; and Kevin Gallagher, a Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies professor of global development policy, talked about the economic and policy implications of climate change.

Deborah Carr, a CAS Distinguished Professor of sociology and expert on aging, lightheartedly admitted climate research hadn’t even been on her radar until she met Ian Sue Wing, a CAS professor of Earth and environment.

“Some of you might not put population aging and climate change together,” Carr said. “In fact, I wouldn’t have done that two years ago as a sociologist of aging, but through the [BU] Center for Innovation in Social Science, I met Ian Sue Wing…and we put our heads together to think about, is there a project here?” There was, and together they produced a study on the intersection of rising temperatures and an aging population.

Finding Connections

As the presenters quickly took attendees—including Gilliam—through their work, other areas of convergence and connection sprang up: Mark Grinstaff, a William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor with appointments in biomedical engineering, chemistry, and medicine, spotlighted a collaboration with the BU National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL). In his talk, he lauded a recent project that used modified self-amplifying RNA to improve the potency of vaccines.

Engineering better healthcare and therapies is a particular strength of BU—and other presenters also revealed how they were improving techniques for studying human health or pursuing creative new treatment approaches. 

Ahmad “Mo” Khalil, an ENG professor of biomedical engineering, talked about BU’s history in synthetic biology and how his team was applying modern techniques “across the tree of life,” from programming bacteria to develop new therapies to modifying human cells to fight challenging cancers. Christopher Chen, a William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor and an ENG professor of materials science and engineering and of biomedical engineering, gave a glimpse into his work to engineer human tissue, focusing on the array of experts contributing to a project to build small patches of cardiac tissue that could one day help cure heart attacks.

From something happening just in his lab, it “became a project that involved about 20 or so investigators across multiple institutions and disciplines, ranging from engineering biology to medicine,” said Chen. With National Science Foundation funding, his team “expanded our goal from just an engineering research project to one that also tries to build a community, where we’re including people, like kids and teachers, building exhibits at the museum, involving industry partners.”

Yannis Paschalidis, an ENG Distinguished Professor of engineering, also talked about projects that pulled in specialists from across disciplines. One focus of his presentation was his work in artificial intelligence (AI), notably his partnerships with researchers and clinicians on BU’s Medical Campus. With his team at the Rafik B. Hariri Institute for Computing and Computational Science & Engineering, Paschalidis has helped drive studies testing the ability of AI to predict pregnancy outcomes, anticipate dementia, improve hypertension treatment, and detect stroke.

AI is also helping inform the research of Naomi Caselli, a Wheelock College of Education & Human Development associate professor of deaf education and director of the BU AI and Education Initiative. She spoke about how sign language has traditionally been excluded from language research and how her team is studying ways of using technology and data science to improve understanding of sign language.

“We’re taking a convergent approach and working across campus with all these different departments to try and elevate sign languages to their rightful place in the landscape of language research,” said Caselli.

After the 12 quick-fire presentations—which all hit their timing mark, with one presenter even joking they won the prize for finishing ahead of the bell—Waters wrapped up the event, saying it’s “a really nice sense of the amazing work that is happening here, as well as the breadth of work that our faculty are working on and just the collaborations that are happening all across the University.”

Future Research on Tap events, which are open to faculty, staff, postdocs, and graduate students, include Health Inequity Meets Health Economics on October 29 and Women’s Health and Cultivating a Research Community at BU on November 6.