Kenneth Lutchen, BU’s senior advisor to the president, strategy and innovation, is a renowned researcher in pulmonary physiology, publishing more than 150 peer-reviewed journal articles. Photo by Jake Belcher

Accolades

BU’s Kenneth Lutchen Named AAAS Fellow

Lifetime honor for a longtime BU and engineering education leader who has championed the convergent research approach and pioneered advances in lung care

A scholar at the forefront of respiratory mechanics and an innovative leader in higher education, Kenneth Lutchen, Boston University’s senior advisor to the president, strategy and innovation, has been named an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow. The world’s largest general scientific society, AAAS annually bestows this honor on scientists, engineers, and innovators in recognition of scientifically and socially distinguished achievements throughout their careers. A panel of Lutchen’s peers elected him a fellow to formally recognize his “seminal work in modeling structure-function relationships in the lung, and for developing new paradigms for mechanical ventilation.”

Lutchen, who served as BU’s interim provost and chief academic officer from 2023 to 2024, is also dean emeritus of the BU College of Engineering, where he is a professor of biomedical engineering. He first made his name as an expert in pulmonary physiology, publishing more than 150 peer-reviewed journal articles, which have been cited more than 10,000 times.

“I am deeply honored to be recognized by AAAS as a fellow, not only because of the personal accolade, but also because of my deep respect for the mission and impact of AAAS on society,” Lutchen says. “AAAS is dedicated to promoting the power of science and the scientific method to advance society in a data-driven way. While the world is a complicated geopolitical place, it will forever be dependent on advancing scientific discovery and technology innovation to improve everyone’s quality of life and to address local and global challenges that emerge. AAAS stands as an objective advocate to facilitate how society can best be served by science and technology.”

Since the fellows program was founded in 1874, more than 110 BU scholars have been given the honor.

“Ken is the ninth member of the BU College of Engineering faculty to receive this lifetime honor from AAAS. That is a testament to our prominence in engineering scholarship—and that prominence is due in no small part to Ken’s efforts here as dean for 17 years,” says Elise Morgan, ENG dean ad interim and Maysarah K. Sukkar Professor of Engineering Design and Innovation. “One of his great strengths is the ability to inspire people to work across disciplinary boundaries, and to attract and retain faculty who are extraordinarily gifted in interdisciplinary inquiry.”

Converging to Solve Global Challenges

As dean of ENG from 2006 to 2023, Lutchen oversaw the creation of several research centers and worked with industry partners to open three experiential education facilities: the Engineering Product Innovation Center, the Bioengineering Technology & Entrepreneurship Center, and the Robotics and Autonomous Systems Teaching and Innovation Center. He also developed and promoted—and even trademarked—the concept of the Societal Engineer, an individual with a sense of purpose and appreciation for how engineering can be used to improve society.

To better train engineers with the Societal Engineer mindset and the broad mix of skills needed to put it into practice, Lutchen realigned the college’s departments with the goal of encouraging convergent research. “Critical societal challenges will not be solved by anyone trained in only a single discipline,” he wrote in a special edition of ENGineer magazine. “Convergence engages the power of synthesizing across often disparate disciplines to accelerate impactful solutions.”

As senior advisor to BU President Melissa Gilliam, Lutchen was recently named cochair of the University’s Task Force on Convergent Research and Education.

“Ken is a remarkable scholar,” says ENG professor John White, who holds Lutchen’s former post as chair of the biomedical engineering (BME) department. “He was a pioneer of using engineering approaches to assess lung function noninvasively. In studies of asthma and other lung conditions, Ken and his collaborators, like Professor Bela Suki, were able to extract detailed information from relatively simple measurements, making significant contributions to human health.

“Ken is also an extraordinary leader,” adds White, noting the department’s growth under Lutchen’s tenure and its rise into the top 10 biomedical engineering programs, according to the US News & World Report rankings. “It is not an exaggeration to say that he was the architect of BU BME’s emergence as one of the world’s top departments of its kind.”

This year’s class of AAAS Fellows consists of 471 scientists, engineers, and innovators across 24 disciplines. “These fellows are the embodiment of scientific excellence and service to our communities,” says Sudip S. Parikh, AAAS chief executive officer and executive publisher of the Science family of journals. “At a time when the future of the scientific enterprise in the US and around the world is uncertain, their work demonstrates the value of sustained investment in science and engineering.”