A Lifelong Passion for Understanding Vision and the Brain
Remembering Lucia Vaina, a brain science pioneer and brilliant mentor
After 39 years, BME said goodbye to a distinguished colleague, a delightful intellectual force, and one of our original faculty members. Professor Emerita Lucia Maria Vaina, who passed away this summer, had a significant impact on the development of research in the BME department, and helped to realize its original vision as a center of excellence at BU. She was a pioneer in the use of non-invasive neuroimaging to study human visual processing, especially motion perception, and she made important contributions to the understanding of human vision and brain function.
Professor Vaina mentored countless students and colleagues along the way. Her long and impactful career included early studies in artificial intelligence, and an unwavering commitment to research. According to Department Chair John White, “Lucia was one of the early research-active hires of the department in the 1980s. Her work, combining computational modeling with measurements made in human subjects, focused on the brain’s mechanisms of learning and processing of the visual world. She was well ahead of her time, and her stature in the neuroscience community was critically important to our transition to a research powerhouse.”
As a scientist, Lucia led a life to be celebrated. From a young age, she was captivated by the mysteries of the human brain, particularly how we perceive the world through sight. This curiosity blossomed into a lifelong dedication to neuroscience, where she made significant contributions through her tireless research and mentorship. She received her PhD in Mathematical Logic at the Sorbonne in Paris, France, and her Doctorat d’Etat ès Sciences & Médecine in Neurology at the National Polytechnic Institute of Toulouse, France.
“Lucia broke the glass ceiling — she was BME’s first female faculty member to be tenured in the College”, recalls former Dean of Engineering, Charles DeLisi. She joined Biomedical Engineering in 1986. Her expanding role at BU grew to include Professor, Department of Neurology; Director, Brain and Vision Laboratory; and member of the Center for Systems Neuroscience and the Graduate Program in Neuroscience. Her remarkable commitment to research also included roles at Massachusetts General Hospital, where she served as Director of the Neurology of Vision Laboratory and Lecturer in Neurology at Harvard Medical School and the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging. She was also a research affiliate at MIT, and was elected a member of the AIMBE College of Fellows, an honor representing the top two percent of medical and biological engineers.
Professor Vaina’s lifelong dedication to the pursuit of vision research made her an extraordinary mentor to the next generation. Over the years, she guided hundreds of students with her wisdom, and inspired all who knew her with her vibrant spirit as well as her warmth and sense of community. According to one of her many appreciative students, “Life in her lab was defined by hard work, intellectual rigor, and a deep sense of community. Lucia believed that excellence in research thrived in an environment where people felt both challenged and supported.”
