CAS faculty members brought honor and recognition to themselves and the College through their dedicated and focused research. The following showcases some of their achievements.
Each year, the College of Arts & Sciences honors a select number of faculty members who excel at their primary job—teaching—with the CAS Teaching Awards. This year, the awards were presented to the following CAS professors in recognition of their excellence in the classroom and commitment to their students: Claudio Rebbi, professor of physics, Gitner Award for Distinguished Teaching; Wally Fulweiler, assistant professor of earth & environment, Neu Family Award for Excellence in Teaching; Carrie Preston, associate professor of English, Frank and Lynne Wisneski Award for Excellence in Teaching; Bill Marx and Tony Wallace, senior lecturers in the Writing Program, College of Arts & Sciences Award for Distinction in First-Year Undergraduate Education; Deborah Belle, professor of psychology and director of the Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies Program, College of Arts & Sciences Award for Distinction in First-Year Undergraduate Education; and Bruce Schulman, professor and chair of history, Dean’s Award for Excellence in Graduate Education (read more).
Professor of Economics Larry Epstein, a pioneer in the field of decision theory, and Aurelio Professor of Scripture Emerita Paula Fredriksen, an expert on the history of ancient Christianity, were named to the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS) (read more).
Among the humanities faculty members recognized for impressive accomplishments was Tony Wallace, a senior lecturer in the Writing Program. He was awarded the 2013 Drue Heinz Literature Prize for a collection of short stories called The Old Priest (read more). Professor and Chair of English Gene Jarrett was elected 2013/14 Chair of the American Literature Section, the largest subgroup in the Modern Language Association of America.
The Boston University Center for the Humanities (BUCH) awarded 11 faculty fellowships: Six outstanding junior faculty members were named Junior Faculty Fellows and five distinguished senior faculty members were granted Jeffrey Henderson Senior Research Fellowships, which support a semester of research (read more).
In the natural sciences, the National Science Foundation (NSF) honored four junior CAS faculty members with the highly regarded Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award. It supports junior faculty members who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education, and the integration of education and research within their organizations. This year’s recipients include two computer scientists: Assistant Professor Jonathan Appavoo, recognized for his work teaching computers to learn from their past behavior (read more), and Assistant Professor Evimaria Terzi, chosen for her pioneering work in data mining. Ramesh Jasti, assistant professor of chemistry, received a CAREER grant based on a proposal to develop new methods and strategies for the synthesis of well-defined polyaromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) belts (read more). Jasti was also awarded a 2013 Sloan Research Fellowship for the “distinguished performance and unique potential” evidenced by his work with carbon nanotubes (read more). Andrew West, assistant professor of astronomy, received an NSF CAREER Award and was named a 2013 Cottrell Scholar. He plans to use the accompanying Cottrell grant to study how very-low-mass stars form (read more).
Linda Doerrer, associate professor of chemistry, received a Fulbright Scholar Award for her work in materials synthesis (read more).
Gail Carpenter, professor of cognitive & neural systems and mathematics, was named an IEEE Fellow for her development of the adaptive resonance theory (ART) and for modeling Hodgkin-Huxley neurons, both of which play a crucial role in neuroscience (read more).
The Rafik B. Hariri Institute for Computing and Computational Science & Engineering named three CAS faculty members—Luis Carvalho, assistant professor of mathematics & statistics; Dino Christenson, assistant professor of political science; and Sharon Goldberg, assistant professor of computer science—to its second cohort of Junior Faculty Fellows (read more).
In the social sciences, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation recognized Professor of Anthropology Robert P. Weller’s more than 30 years of research on contemporary culture in China and Taiwan with a Guggenheim Fellowship. Weller will use the fellowship to fund his study of religious pluralism in China (read more).
The Fulbright Commission awarded Associate Professor of Sociology Stephen Kalberg a Fulbright Teaching/Research Fellowship. Kalberg will use the fellowship to teach and conduct research comparing the Armenia’s hybrid political culture model to the political cultures of several Western European nations.
Annual Report 2012/2013
From the Dean
From recruiting ever-better faculty and students to engaging in path-breaking research, academic year 2012/2013 was a year of great accomplishments.
Recruiting Excellent Undergraduates
CAS again attracted excellent students who bring with them a wealth of interesting experiences and who are eager to pursue their education in a large and exciting university in one of the major cities of the world.
Strengthening Graduate Education
BU and the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences laid the groundwork for a tremendous strengthening of the quality of doctoral programs by developing a new budget model.
Strengthening the Quality of the Faculty
In 2012/2013, CAS recruited an exemplary cohort of 16 new assistant professors in fields across the humanities and social and natural sciences.
Enhancing the Research Mission
This year, Boston University was welcomed into the Association of American Universities (AAU), an organization of leading North American research universities—an accomplishment to which CAS, with its portfolio of research in the natural and social sciences and the humanities, was a key contributor.
Strengthening Connections to the Community and the World
The College’s commitment to make the world a better—and better-understood—place contributes to BU’s growing reputation as a leading, global university.
Managing Our Financial Resources
Despite the challenges facing all of higher education in recent years, careful fiscal management has allowed the College to again make progress toward achieving its long-term goals.
Nurturing Connections with Alumni and Friends
The College continues to develop new opportunities for continuing education, networking, and socializing to help alumni and friends stay connected.
A Community in Mourning
The BU community and CAS came together in many ways in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings.
Our Impact, Your Impact: The Campaign for CAS
In 2012/2013, BU entered the public phase of its first capital campaign, inspiring many alumni, parents and other friends of CAS to step up support for our annual fund and critical projects.
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