BU’s new Career Development Professors (left to right from top): Hongwan Liu, Sophie Hao, Deepti Ghadiyaram, Morgan Weiland, Wei-Lun (Harry) Chao, Emma Wiles, Travis Rotterman. Photos by Jackie Ricciardi. Chao photo courtesy of Wei-Lun Chao. Liu photo courtesy of Hongwan Liu

University News

Boston University Names Seven Junior Faculty Career Development Professors

This year’s recipients study from AI to the structure of the universe

Technology is the through-line connecting the work of the seven scholars who have been named this year’s Boston University Career Development Professors—“talented junior educators emerging as future leaders within their respective fields.” Most of the recipients’ research involves artificial intelligence; all study how digital technology affects our lives or the physical universe we inhabit.

“Supporting our faculty at every stage of their careers is central to Boston University’s success,” says Gloria Waters, University provost and chief academic officer. “Our Career Development Professorships not only recognize the extraordinary promise of these emerging scholars, but also reflect our commitment to recruiting and retaining world-class academic talent. By investing in their research and teaching, and thanks to the generosity of our donors, we are strengthening BU’s role as a global leader in innovation and discovery.”

The BU Provost’s office awards the professorships annually to faculty nominated by deans and colleagues. Professorships are named for the donors and alumni who fund them, except when donors choose to remain anonymous. Some professorships are tied to specific BU schools, and each conveys three years of financial support for the recipients’ salaries and/or research and scholarship. 

Cecile Kaplan Dalton Career Development Professorship, endowed by BU trustee Nathaniel Dalton (LAW’91) and Amy Gottleib Dalton (LAW’91)

Hongwan Liu, a College of Arts & Sciences assistant professor of physics, sets his research sights low and high, “asking how physics at the smallest scales, where new particles interact with each other through yet undiscovered forces, can be discovered using physics at the largest scales, which determine the structure and evolution of the universe,” writes one of his nominators, Stan Sclaroff, dean of Arts & Sciences. He cites Liu’s use of machine learning AI to hunt dark matter—the as-yet-unobserved substance believed to make up most of the matter in the universe—work that increased the calculated number of stars associated with a dark matter stream in our galaxy 20-fold. “His colleagues anticipate he’ll be one of the key people driving new ideas on dark matter in the next decade,” Sclaroff writes.

Moorman-Simon Career Development Professorships, endowed by BU trustee Ruth Moorman (CAS’88, Wheelock’89,’09) and her husband, Sheldon Simon

Sophie Hao, a CAS assistant professor of linguistics and computer science who also is affiliated with the Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences, melds theory and empirical methods from multiple fields to evaluate the abilities and limits of Large Language Models (LLMs), AI systems that generate and understand human language. “To say that Prof. Hao’s research is topical at this moment in history would be a tremendous understatement,” writes Jonathan Barnes, a CAS professor and chair of linguistics. “As one of the world’s foremost emerging experts on the interpretability of LLMs, she is building out a research program whose relevance carries over into national and international headlines on a more-or-less daily basis.”

Deepti Ghadiyaram, a CAS assistant professor of computer science, with appointments in the College of Engineering and the Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences, studies machine learning and computer vision (AI that allows computers to derive information from images and videos.) “One of her hallmark projects,” writes nominator George Kollios, a CAS professor and chair of computer science, “aims to advance sign language recognition for low-resource languages,” with potential to improve access and interactive learning for deaf and hard-of-hearing communities. “Since joining our department, Deepti has established herself as a visionary scholar whose work exemplifies the power and promise of interdisciplinary research,” Kollios says. “These projects reflect a broader research agenda dedicated to building safe, interpretable, and robust computer vision systems with positive societal impact.”

Morgan Weiland, a College of Communication assistant professor of communication law (with an additional appointment at the School of Law), is an expert on the intersection of new media technology, the history of communication, and information policy. “At the heart of Dr. Weiland’s scholarship is a deep engagement with the social construction of technology law,” writes Mariette DiChristina-Gerosa, dean of COM and a professor of the practice in journalism. “Her dissertation, which she is preparing to develop into a book, traces the process by which the internet was transformed into a speech system protected by the First Amendment.” With AI reshaping society and democratic speech under challenge, she adds, “Dr. Weiland’s vision is to create a new interdisciplinary domain at BU, one that not only advances the disciplines of communication and law but also connects with other parts of the University, such as computer science and engineering, working on related questions.”

Peter J. Levine Career Development Professorship, endowed by Peter J. Levine (ENG’83)

Wei-Lun (Harry) Chao will join BU in January 2026 as a College of Engineering assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering. He researches healthcare AI, autonomous driving, machine learning, and computer vision. “His work addresses fundamental challenges at the intersection of machine learning and real-world applications, especially where data is sparse, noisy, or otherwise imperfect,” writes W. Clem Karl, ENG chair and a professor of electrical and computer engineering. As an example, Karl notes that in Chao’s previous faculty position at Ohio State University, he co-led the school’s autonomous vehicle drive team, which competes against other colleges in motorsports cosponsored by General Motors. 

Isabel Anderson Career Development Professorship, endowed by the estates of Isabel and Larz Anderson

Emma Wiles, a Questrom School of Business assistant professor of information systems, researches the effects of AI on labor markets and online employment platforms. In one paper she coauthored, the researchers found that people using AI to write their résumé had an 8 percent higher probability of being hired and 10 percent higher wages than subjects who didn’t use AI because the technology makes CVs and applicants’ abilities more clear to employers. In another of her papers, Wiles found that employers using AI to draft job postings spent 44 percent less time writing the postings and were more likely to put them online, yet were no more likely to hire anyone, meaning AI decreased the hiring process’s efficiency. “She is a talented researcher,” Susan Fournier, Questrom’s dean and the Allan Questrom Professor in Management, writes, “poised and trained to make critical contributions to the school’s convergent research theme—The Tech Evolution of Business, Markets, and the Economy.”

Ralph Edwards Career Development Professorship

Travis Rotterman, a Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine assistant professor of pharmacology, physiology, and biophysics, researches nerve injury. Specifically, he uses cutting-edge genetic and other methods to study the implications of neurological damage for sensory and motor functions. “His innovative work using models of nerve and spinal cord injury has provided critical insights into the complex circuitry underlying motor adaptations,” writes Hee-Young Park, dean ad interim of CAMED and associate dean for faculty affairs. Among Rotterman’s other findings are those that “provide an important cautionary note on potential critical differences between restoring/retaining anatomical connectivity after neurological injury and behavioral recovery of function,” Park says.