In Memory of BU Professor Margrit Betke
A Message from Azer Bestavros, Associate Provost in the Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences
August 2025
It is with a heavy heart that we share the sad news of the passing of Professor Margrit Betke, a distinguished faculty member in both the Department of Computer Science (CS) in the College of Arts & Sciences and the Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences (CDS).
Margrit has been a colleague and dear friend for over 25 years. An award-winning scientist and mentor, she always sought ways to use AI for the betterment of society and to improve the lives of people. Her ideas and work anticipated the “AI for Good” movement as exemplified in her early work on medical imaging and lung cancer, her work on HCI for people with disabilities, and her work on video-based ecological censusing for conservation, among others. Margrit has always been highly interdisciplinary and collaborative. I had the privilege of having her as co-PI on the SENSORIUM project, in which her work exemplified what “Convergence in Research” is all about – a full decade before that term was coined.
Margrit was instrumental in shaping the vision and trajectory of the Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences from its earliest days. As a member of the University’s Taskforce on Data Science, she helped develop the recommendations that led to CDS’s launch in 2019, becoming a founding faculty member and contributing in countless ways—from serving on multiple search committees to helping craft and propose the PhD program in CDS. She played a formative role in CDS’s leadership, serving on the inaugural leadership team in AY2020–21 alongside Wesley Wildman, Mark Crovella, and Yannis Paschalidis, and continuing in AY2021–22 with the addition of Mayank Varia. Even before CDS formally launched, Margrit was the first BU faculty member to be named a Data Science Faculty Fellow under the Data Science Initiative that laid the groundwork for CDS—helping to shape its interdisciplinary ethos and academic programs from the very beginning. Beyond CS and CDS, she was a champion for equity and inclusion in STEM, a leader in BU’s Women in Science and Engineering initiatives, and co-PI on an NSF grant for Women in Science and Engineering (WISE).
Boston University Professor Margrit Betke
Photo by Nicole Loeb for BU Photography
Beyond her scholarship, Margrit will be remembered for her kindness, generosity, and the communities she built—whether among colleagues, in the classroom, through outreach to high school students, or in her church choir, which gathered to sing for her in her final week. Her legacy—of groundbreaking research, dedicated mentorship, and a vision of AI in service to humanity—will continue to inspire and guide future generations.
We extend our deepest condolences to Margrit’s family, friends, colleagues, and the many students whose lives she touched.