The Arts & Sciences Distinguished Alumni Awards honor alumni of the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences whose accomplishments in their professions, communities, and university service advance and embody the arts and sciences in action.
The 2025 Distinguished Alumni Awards breakfast ceremony will take place September 27, 2025, from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., during BU Alumni Weekend.
2025 Honorees
Dr. Ken Anderson (CAS`73)
Dr. Ken Anderson is the Kraft Family Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, as well as Director of the Jerome Lipper Multiple Myeloma Center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He earned his BA in Biology and Psychology Summa Cum Laude at Boston University in 1973, and his MD at Johns Hopkins Medical School in 1977. He completed Internal Medicine Residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and then completed Hematology, Medical Oncology, and Tumor Immunology training at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He is a Doris Duke Distinguished Clinical Research Scientist and American Cancer Society Clinical Research Professor.
Over the last forty-five years, he has developed laboratory and animal models of multiple myeloma in its microenvironment which have allowed for both identification of novel targets and validation of novel targeted and immune therapies. He has then led efforts to rapidly translate these studies to clinical trials culminating in FDA approval of multiple novel targeted therapies, which have transformed the treatment paradigm and markedly improved patient outcome. He has also trained generations of researchers and caregivers who are now leading myeloma centers internationally.
He has received the American Society of Hematology William Dameshek Prize, the American Association for Cancer Research Joseph H. Burchenal Award, the American Society of Clinical Oncology David A. Karnofsky Award, the American Cancer Society Medal of Honor in Science, and the Harvard Medical School Warren Alpert Prize. He is also recipient of the Robert A. Kyle Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Myeloma Foundation the Waldenstrom Award at the International Myeloma Workshop, as well as the Ron Burton and Leonard P Zakim humanitarian awards. He is a Fellow of the American Association for Cancer Research Academy and the American Society of Clinical Oncology, a member of the National Academy of Medicine as well as Royal College of Physicians and Pathologists, and past President of the International Myeloma Society and American Society of Hematology. He graduated with a BA in Biology from the College of Arts & Sciences in 1973.
Mary Beth Leonard (CAS`84)
Mary Beth Leonard spend nearly 35 years in the U.S. Foreign Service, including as an ambassador to Mali, the African Union, and Nigeria. As ambassador to Mali (2011-2014), she guided U.S. policy through turbulent times marked by a coup, encroaching terrorist incursion, and international military intervention to a return to a democratically elected government. As a permanent representative to the African Union (2016-2019), she reassured African partners uncertain about a new administration’s commitment to Africa and unnerved by the specter of unflattering comments attributed to the U.S. president of the constancy of our shared commitment to the continent’s peace and prosperity. As ambassador to Nigeria (2019-2023), she led one of the largest missions in Africa and oversaw nearly $1 billion in assistance. As COVID raged, her mission pivoted health interventions honed in the fights against polio and HIV to support the government of Nigeria’s COVID response from testing to vaccination in the continent’s most populous nation. She led the international community as it supported Nigeria through pivotal elections and a contentious aftermath.
Her career also included time in academia, including as Diplomat in Residence for the New England region (2014-2015) and the State Department’s Senior Advisor to the Naval War College (2015-2016). She spent the fall of 2023 as the Senior Advisor for Africa at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations during the peak sessions of the UN General Assembly.
Leonard earned her BA from Boston University magna cum laude, with a major in economics and a minor in French. She received an MA with emphasis in African studies from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and another from the U.S. Naval War College, with distinction. She is a member of the American Academy of Diplomacy, and serves on the boards of the Worcester Art Museum and Preservation Worcester.
Karen Seto (GRS’95, ’00)
Karen Seto is the Frederick C. Hixon Professor of Geography and Urbanization Science at Yale University. A geographer and urban scientist, she is one of the world’s leading experts on the effects of contemporary urbanization on the planet. She developed the first global forecast of urban expansion, and using a combination of satellite remote sensing, modeling methods, and fieldwork, her research has advanced understanding of urbanization’s effects on climate change, biodiversity, and food systems. She has extensive fieldwork experience in Asia, especially China and India, where she has conducted research for over 20 and 10 years, respectively.
Dr. Seto has served on numerous national and international scientific bodies. From 2022 to 2025, she co-chaired the NAS Climate Security Roundtable, established by the direction of Congress to help better understand how climate change affects U.S. national security interests. She was a Coordinating Lead Author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 5th and 6th Assessment Reports, where she co-led the chapters on urban mitigation of climate change. She co-founded and for ten years co-chaired an international science program, Urbanization and Global Environmental Change, which framed, enabled, and coordinated urban environmental research with more than 1,000 affiliates across over 50 countries. She has served on numerous U.S. National Research Council (NRC) Committees, including the NRC Committee to the Advise the U.S. Global Change Research Program and the NRC Committee on Pathways to Urban Sustainability. She is a former co-editor-in-chief of the journal, Global Environmental Change.
At Yale, Dr. Seto is Director of the Hixon Center for Urban Sustainability and Co-Director of the Yale Center for Geospatial Solutions. From 2000 to 2008, she was faculty at Stanford, where she held joint appointments in the Woods Institute for the Environment and the School of Earth Sciences. She has received many awards for her scientific contributions, including the Outstanding Contributions to Remote Sensing Research Award from the American Association of Geographers and a Sustainability Science Award from the Ecological Society of America. Dr. Seto is an elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Council on Foreign Relations, and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She received a Ph.D. in Geography and a M.A. in International Relations and Resource and Environmental Management from Boston University.
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