News

Luca Dal Negro Earns NSF Award
Professor Luca Dal Negro received a National Science Foundation Award for a project that will be developing miniaturized optical devices to simultaneously image a target and spectrally analyze the properties of the incoming radiation using sub-micron silicon chips. More

Meet the Newest MSE Career Award Winners
Wanzheng Hu Photo courtesy of Hu In September 2017, physicist Wanzheng Hu moved from Germany to the United States to begin teaching at BU, despite having never... More

Cheng Wins Grant to Continue Breakthrough Imaging Research
He received a Maximizing Investigator’s Research Award for $2.9 million over five years from the National Institutes of Health. More
VIDEO: Watch These 3D-Printed Nasal Swab Prototypes Take Form
BU graduate researcher is developing alternative swabs in response to the global supply shortage created by the coronavirus pandemic More
Meet BU’s Newest NSF CAREER Award Winners
National Science Foundation funding will advance researchers working on cybersecurity, number theory, superconductors, and more More
Sahar Sharifzadeh Joins Early Career Advisory Board
ECE and MSE Professor Sahar Sharifzadeh is one of ten fast-rising researchers appointed to the Early Career Advisory Board of ACS Materials Letters. More
Five ECE Faculty are 2020 Spring Research Incubation Awardees
The Hariri Institute for Computing announced their 2020 Spring Research Incubation Awards to faculty who have the potential to define new areas of research; five ECE faculty members are authors or co-authors of these incubation projects. More

Q&A: How BU Plans to Test Students, Faculty, and Staff for COVID-19
Klapperich on how self-sampling, robots, and a new lab will help make campus as safe as possible More
Team led by Ramachandran Wins a MURI Award
Professor Siddharth Ramachandran (ECE) was awarded a Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) grant. More
A Gold Standard Gets a Modern Makeover
Measuring antibiotic resistance in hours More

First year MSE PhD student awarded Clare Boothe Luce Fellowship
By Mariana Sánchez Gaona First year MSE PhD candidate Jillian Rix was named Clare Boothe Luce Fellowship 2020 recipient. The Clare Boothe Luce fellowship benefits recipients at... More
Ünlü Elected AIMBE Fellow
Boston University now has 35 AIMBE fellows, fifth most in the nation, and Professor Joyce Wong serves as chair of the College of Fellows. More
Ünlü Elected to AIMBE College of Fellows
Professor Selim Ünlü was elected to the AIMBE College of Fellows for his work on the optical interference in biological imaging and sensing. More

Zaman Honored with Guggenheim Fellowship
Muhammad Zaman, ENG, and Sigrid Nunez, CAS, among this year’s 173 recipients More
A Bug’s-Eye View
Researchers develop a new camera inspired by insects’ compound eyes More
AI-driven robots are making new materials, improving solar cells and other technologies
Professor Keith Brown was featured in an article published by Science on 12/11/19. The following was sourced from Science and written by Robert F. Service. In July 2018, Curtis Berlinguette, More
Sustainable Adhesives of the Future Won’t Stick Around
Most adhesives today are made of plastic, but BU chemists hope a new biodegradable alternative will provide a more environmentally friendly option. More

Xin Zhang Elected to National Academy of Inventors
Professor Xin Zhang is being recognized for her pioneering work in the field of metamaterials by the National Academy of Inventors, which has recently elected her a fellow. More
How Can Synthetic Biology Combat Climate Change?
On December 3 and 4, the College of Engineering, along with the graduate program in Bioinformatics and systems biology, hosted the workshop, The Role of Synthetic Biology in Atmospheric Greenhouse Gas Reduction. The workshop is supported in part by a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. More
Zhang Receives Award from the Institution of Engineering and Technology
Chosen from over 360 entries, Zhang’s award recognized her recent work in developing a new metamaterial that can improve magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) quality and decrease scan time. More
Here’s How to Really Improve Gender Diversity in STEM Research
Wong is a coauthor on a new consensus paper published in Science describing a series of policy frameworks that could increase gender diversity in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) research workforce. More
Speeding Up MRI Scans to Save Lives
BU researchers design an “intelligent” magnetic metamaterial that could make MRI more affordable and accessible By Art Jahnke | Via The Brink Boston University researchers have developed... More
2019 University Lecture: Muhammad Zaman Will Address the Global Refugee Crisis
Last year alone, more than 70 million people were displaced by war, persecution, and other causes, the highest level in nearly 70 years, according to the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees. Muhammad Zaman wants passionately to find ways to reverse the trend and alleviate the suffering of refugees. More

Twisting Light
Professor Siddharth Ramachandran and his team have discovered a new method, and along with it, a new fiber, that can transmit 24 times the amount of data of any previous single optical fiber. More
Multiplication by Divisions
Fuel cell use could be one of the best ways to mitigate climate change—fuel cells work like batteries, provide efficient power and don’t emit air pollutants. But there are multiple barriers in research and development before they will be available to a commercial market. Professor Soumendra Basu (ME, MSE) has been working on fuel cells, but, along with everyone else, was stymied by one of those barriers: the material used on the cell’s cathode was unstable and subject to decomposition. For help, he reached out to Professor Karl Ludwig in the Physics Department. More
The College of Engineering Announces Three Distinguished Faculty Fellows
Associate Professor James C. Bird (ME, MSE) will be the inaugural holder of the Theo de Winter Distinguished Faculty Fellow, Associate Professor Ahmad ‘Mo’ Khalil (BME) will be the next holder of the Dorf-Ebner Distinguished Faculty Fellow and Associate Professor Bobak Nazer (ECE, SE) will be the next holder of the College of Engineering Distinguished Faculty Fellow. More
Professor Xin Zhang Elected Fellow of the American Physical Society
She has been elected in recognition of her research and educational initiatives using microelectromechanical systems and metamaterials to address a wide range of important problems in areas ranging from energy to healthcare to homeland security. More
Three BU Research Teams Win First Kilachand Fund Awards
$100 million fund will continue to honor cutting-edge researchers in life sciences and engineering By Chuck Leddy Originally featured on The Brink In 2018, BU trustee Rajen... More
Bishop Lands Grant from Sony to Develop Novel Magnetometer
Professor David Bishop has been awarded a $100,000 research grant from Sony Electronics to further develop a novel, ultra-sensitive and contactless magnetometer to be used for anything from location sensing to heart monitoring. More
Identifying How a Material Grows: Discoveries by BU, DOE and UVM
From tinted car windows to solar cells, the versatile function of thin films has been playing significant roles in our lives. An MSE professor and a student collaborated with researchers to understand the growth of thin films like never before. More
Listen: BME Professor Discusses Musculoskeletal Treatment on BBC Health Check Podcast
Listen Below: On June 12, 2019, Professor Mark Grinstaff (BME, Chemistry, MSE, MED) was interviewed on the BBC's Health Check Podcast. The interview begins at 19:39 Segment Summary: When... More
Magnetic Metamaterial Can “Turn Up the Volume” of MRI
BU researchers have developed a new metamaterial that can improve MRI quality and cut scan time in half. More
Light as Fuel for Space Travel with Harry Atwater
Professor Harry Atwater is on a hot pursuit to harness light as fuel for space travel. With fundamental properties like speed and ubiquity, light is a natural resource with vast potential. On May 7, materials scientists, chemists and physicists from BU and other local universities attended the Saint-Gobain Materials Science Lecture on this topic. More
Four ENG Professors Receive CAREER Awards
Assistant Professors Brian Walsh, Michelle Sander, Sahar Sharifzadeh and Lei Tian have all received Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) awards from the National Science Foundation. More
Ramachandran named 2019 Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellow by DoD
Ramachandran received the Department of Defense’s most prestigious award for a single investigator and will explore an optical phenomena: the existence of light beams that, instead of streaming in a straight line, swirl downward like a spiral staircase. More
Christopher Chen Receives University’s Highest Faculty Honor
This year’s other awardees are Anne McKee, a School of Medicine professor of neurology and pathology, Michael Hasselmo, a College of Arts & Sciences professor of psychological and brain sciences, and Ha Jin (GRS’94), a CAS professor of creative writing. More
Professor Christopher Chen Presents DeLisi Distinguished Lecture
Professor Christopher S. Chen (BME, MSE), recipient of the 2019 Charles DeLisi Award and Distinguished Lecture, presented “How Complex is Simple Enough? Engineering 3D Culture Models of Physiology and Disease” on April 1. The award recognizes faculty members with extraordinary records of well-cited scholarship and outstanding alumni who have invented and mentored transformative technologies that impact quality of life. More
A Step Forward for High-Power Fiber Optics
Professor Siddharth Ramachandran (ECE, MSE) and his lab have observed a new effect within fiber optics that opens up a stable and effective way to develop and use a fiber-optic cable to create a laser that can produce high-power light at desired colors. More
How Light Turns Ordinary Hydrogen Peroxide into a MRSA Treatment
ENG researchers invent blue light therapy that kills MRSA without antibiotics. Perhaps what’s most promising is that blue light phototherapy doesn’t affect healthy cells of the body, so the technique could be used to treat MRSA infections without harming any surrounding tissue or skin. More
Ramachandran Elected SPIE Fellow
Professor Siddharth Ramachandran has been elected a Fellow of the SPIE for his work in structured and singular light beams, and their applications to quantum and atom optics, sensors, telecom and biophotonics; optical fibers and guided wave nonlinear optics; and photonic crystals. More

MSE PhD candidate to advance healthcare
Alexander Saeboe is a MSE PhD candidate and BUnano fellow. Professor Allison Dennis (BME, MSE) is his research advisor, while he also works closely with Professor Sam Thiagalingam (MED). In the Dennis Lab, Saeboe is working to improve nanomaterials for healthcare. More
Innovation through Bio-inspired Metamaterials
Professor Xin Zhang is known for her pioneering work in building metamaterials, artificially designed materials that have properties not found in nature. Now, Aobo Li, a doctoral student in Zhang’s lab, has flipped that idea around to study the properties and functions of a natural material to improve on metamaterial designs. More

Three ECE Professors Receive CAREER Awards
Within these past few months, not one, not two, but three professors from the ECE Department have won CAREER Awards, which are among the most... More
Ji-Xin Cheng Honored by the Optical Society of America
Professor Ji-Xin Cheng has been presented with the Ellis R. Lippincott Award from the Optical Society of America. Named after a pioneer in vibrational spectroscopy, the award recognizes those who continue to advance the field in innovative and creative ways. More
Making the World a Lot Quieter
What sounds would you mute if you could? A pair of Boston University mechanical engineers are asking that question, with the ever-increasing din of drone propellers, airplane turbines, MRI machines, and urban noise pollution blaring in the mind’s ear. More
A New Way to Count
With a new method developed by Professor M. Selim Ünlü’s lab, researchers can determine a much more exact measurement by continually observing molecular reactions throughout the test. Their work has been published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. More
David Bishop Elected to the National Academy of Engineering
When Professor David Bishop checked his phone last Thursday afternoon, he was stunned by what he saw. After a 50-year research career, Bishop received the news that he had just been elected to the National Academy of Engineering, the premiere professional society for engineers. More
Christopher Chen to Deliver DeLisi Lecture
To recognize their contributions to engineering and society, Professor Christopher Chen (BME, MSE) is the recipient of this year’s Charles DeLisi Award and Lecture, and Assistant Professor Sahar Sharifzadeh (ECE, MSE, Physics) has received the Early Career Excellence Award. More
Crossing the Scientific Aisle to Advance Tissue Engineering
Michael Albro’s lab is exploring novel ways to grow cartilage Michael Albro, an assistant professor at the College of Engineering, is working to develop innovative growth... More
Q&A with Masha Kamenetska
BU assistant professor of physics, chemistry, and materials science and engineering wins prestigious $450,000 grant from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research The Air Force... More