News
11 History-Making, History-Shaping Women from Boston University
In honor of Women’s History Month, we present alums who broke ground, and sometimes had to stir up controversy to do it
NSF CAREER: Overview and Advice for Competitive Proposals
This virtual event had Boston University faculty share expert advice on preparing competitive CAREER proposals on March 1, 2022. Among the panelists was Lewis-Burke Associates, a federal lobbying and consulting firm in Washington, DC, providing early career investigators with advice on how to best engage with NSF.
Ukraine Explained, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Abortion Education
FACULTY EXPERTS
Russia and Ukraine, Explained and Analyzed
BU Pardee School of Global Studies scholars Igor Lukes and Vesko Garčević assess the unfolding crisis: "This is not about Ukraine alone. This is about the future of democracies everywhere."
BU IN DC
LAW Dean Leads Letter Urging Confirmation of Biden's Historic Supreme Court Pick
BU School of Law Dean Angela Onwuachi-Willig led more than 200 other Black women law deans and professors who urged the US Senate to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court "swiftly and with bipartisan support."
COMMUNITY RESOURCE
With Roe v. Wade on the Line, BU Will Continue Abortion Education Regardless of Ruling
BU School of Medicine faculty say clinical training will be even "more important" if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns the landmark case.
THOUGHT LEADERS
In Case You Missed It...
Eugene Declercq of the BU School of Public Health discusses why pregnancy-related deaths increased during the first year of the pandemic with The Associated Press... Rishikesh Ram Bhandary of the BU Global Development Policy Center outlines how wealthy nations can meet their climate financing pledges to low-income countries in The Conversation... Catherine Fazio of the BU Questrom School of Business explains the importance of access to capital for Black-owned businesses in The Hill... BU computer scientists Derry Wijaya andBryan Plummer analyze whether recently-introduced legislation to reduce algorithmic bias is the right approach... Lucy Hutyra of the BU College of Arts & Sciences tells WBUR that urban forests may store more carbon than we thought.
China Initiative, AHRQ, NSF Career
JUSTICE DEPT. ENDS CHINA INITIATIVE
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Wednesday that it is terminating its "China Initiative," a Trump Administration program to address security threats from the Chinese government. In a speech to the National Security Institute, Assistant Attorney General Matt Olsen acknowledged concerns that the program "fueled a narrative of intolerance and bias" and led to a "chilling atmosphere for scientists and scholars" who collaborate with Chinese peers. Going forward, DOJ will take a more nuanced approach to research security cases to determine whether administrative remedies are more appropriate than criminal prosecution. Olsen also noted that under new research security guidance recently issued by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, federal science agencies will put in place procedures that allow researchers to self-correct inaccurate reporting of foreign collaborations without risk of criminal indictment.
BUZZ BITS...
- On Tuesday, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) announced that Dr. Robert Otto Valdez will serve as the new AHRQ director, effective immediately. Dr. Valdez was previously a professor emeritus of family & community medicine and economics at the University of New Mexico and held roles at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services during the Clinton Administration.
- The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee introduced its version of the Department of Energy (DOE) Science for the Future Act last week. The bill sets policy priorities for the DOE Office of Science and recommends additional funds for the agency's research activities over the next five years. The bill is expected to be folded into comprehensive innovation and competitiveness legislation that Congress will consider later this spring.
- The National Science Board (NSB), which oversees and advises the National Science Foundation (NSF), held the first NSB meeting of the year on Wednesday and Thursday. The Board heard a presentation on NSF's equity ecosystem, held a conversation with the director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and discussed initiatives to grow K-12 STEM education.
EVENTS NEWS YOU CAN USE
Considering applying for the National Science Foundation's (NSF) prestigious Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) program? The Office of Research is hosting a webinar on March 1st at 4 p.m. on how to navigate the CAREER application process. As part of NSF’s COVID-19 recovery efforts, the agency expects to increase funding this year for the CAREER program. Panelists from Lewis-Burke Associates, a federal consulting firm in Washington, DC, will provide early career investigators with advice on how to best engage with NSF and make your proposal more competitive. A panel of BU faculty who have previously received CAREER awards will also discuss their experience and answer your questions.
LAW Dean’s Letter Urges Confirmation of Biden’s Historic SCOTUS Pick, Ketanji Brown Jackson
Angela Onwuachi-Willig’s letter to US Senate: “Black women are vital contributors to our nation’s democracy”
Russia and Ukraine Explained and Analyzed
Pardee’s Igor Lukes and Vesko Garčević assess the unfolding crisis: “This is not about Ukraine alone. This is about the future of democracies everywhere”
White House Science Advisor, Defense Science Board, Your Pitch
BU IN DC
Vice President and Associate Provost for Enrollment & Student Administration Christine McGuire co-led a panel discussion on strategic enrollment management at the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators Leadership & Legislative Conference on February 14th.
Vice President for Alumni Engagement Erika Jordan and Executive Director of Alumni Relations Susan Richardson met with alumni in Washington, DC, on February 15th and 16th.
WHITE HOUSE NAMES INTERIM SCIENCE LEADERSHIP
President Joe Biden announced on Wednesday that former National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis Collins and White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Deputy Director for Science and Society Alondra Nelson will share the Administration's science leadership responsibilities until a permanent OSTP director is named. Collins, who had stepped down as director of the NIH in December after leading the agency for 12 years, will temporarily serve as the President's science advisor and co-chair of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Nelson will oversee OSTP activities. Collins and Nelson are filling the roles left vacant when Dr. Eric Lander resigned from the Administration last week after a White House investigation that determined he bullied OSTP staff was leaked to the public.
BUZZ BITS...
- Last week, President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate BU alumnus Philip Goldberg (COM '81) as U.S. ambassador to the Republic of Korea. Goldberg is a career foreign service officer who has served as U.S. ambassador to several other countries, including Colombia, the Philippines, and Bolivia.
- The U.S. Department of Defense announced on Monday that Dr. Eric D. Evans will serve as chair of the Defense Science Board, which provides independent advice to the Department on science and technology matters. Dr. Evans is director of the Lincoln Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; he has served on the Defense Science Board since 2009.
- The U.S. Senate narrowly confirmed Dr. Robert Califf as the next commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday. Dr. Califf is a professor of medicine at Duke University and previously served as FDA commissioner during the Obama Administration.
EVENTS NEWS YOU CAN USE
BU Technology Development is offering a workshop on "Perfecting Your Pitch" on February 21st and 23rd on the Medical Campus and February 22nd and 24th on the Charles River Campus. The workshop is specifically geared towards faculty innovators; pitch coach Linda Plano, PhD, will offer simple but effective techniques for translating your ideas into a compelling, authentic pitch to win over any audience. Participants are encouraged to bring a draft one-minute elevator pitch to receive live coaching, with the goal of leaving ready to engage your audience and achieve your goals while maintaining your integrity and vision.
Diversity in Biomedical Research
Top takeaways from a recent National Institutes of Health (NIH) UNITE Initiative event, which highlighted opportunities for diversifying the biomedical research workforce and building new career pathways in the field. This virtual presentation was held on February 17, 2022.
Endemic vs. Pandemic, Eviction Crisis, Doggie Instagram
BU IN DC
BU Law Featured at White House Event on Eviction Crisis
BU School of Law Dean Angela Onwuachi-Willig spoke about seeing people "suffer the sting of eviction, including through illegal tactics like lockouts," during a recent White House event honoring 99 law schools who worked to avert last fall's eviction crisis.
See how they answered the call
FACULTY EXPERT
What Is the Difference Between Pandemic and Endemic?
BU epidemiologist Ellie Murray explains how a pandemic becomes endemic, what that means, and if we'll ever be able to stop thinking about COVID.
Understand what everyone's talking about
NOTABLE ALUMNI
Fetching Success for The Dogist
Elias Weiss Friedman (CAS'10) is the man behind The Dogist, a blog and social media phenomenon with more than four million followers on Instagram.
THOUGHT LEADERS
In Case You Missed It...
The National Center on Improving Literacy has moved to BU... Arianne Chernock of the College of Arts & Sciences describes why Queen Elizabeth II gave Camilla her stamp of approval in The New York Times... Joshua Shifrinsonof the BU Pardee School of Global Studies says that NATO expansion plays a role in the Ukraine crisis in Vox... Michelle Amazeen of the BU College of Communication questions whether whether new types of advertising on media websites are ethical in The Conversation... Director of African American Studies Louis Chude-Sokei explains Afrofuturism in Playbill.
OSTP Director, ARPA-H, Lab to Market
BU IN DC
Gary Lawson of the School of Law spoke on a panel at an American Enterprise Institute book conference on nondelegation doctrine on February 4th.
College of Engineering Dean Kenneth Lutchen attended the American Society for Engineering Education public policy colloquium and subsequently met with Congressional staff to discuss pending life sciences innovation legislation between February 7th and 10th.
Sarah Ketchen Lipson of the School of Public Healthspoke about the impact of the pandemic on student mental health at the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities annual meeting on February 9th.
WHITE HOUSE SCIENCE ADVISOR RESIGNS
White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Director Dr. Eric Lander announced his resignation this week following press reports that a White House investigation had confirmed allegations of his abusive and bullying behavior in the workplace. Several staff members accused Lander of creating a hostile and demeaning work environment at OSTP, particularly for women. Lander had been the first OSTP director given a Cabinet-level appointment; when he leaves on February 18th, he will be the first member of President Joe Biden's Cabinet to depart. He had been the face of two of the President's science priorities: the relaunch of the Cancer Moonshot Initiative and the creation of a proposed Advanced Research Projects Agency-Health.
BUZZ BITS...
- Congressional leaders made progress this week toward enacting the annual spending bills that set budgets for federal student aid programs and research agencies, agreeing to an overall spending framework for fiscal year 2022. Although the fiscal year began last October, appropriators are now aiming to complete the annual spending bills by March 11th.
- The House Subcommittee on Health held a hearing on Tuesday to discuss creating an Advanced Research Projects Agency-Health (ARPA-H), the Biden Administration's proposed entity to accelerate transformational biomedical research. The panel's witnesses supported Chairwoman Anna Eshoo's (D-CA) bill, which would house the new agency outside of the National Institutes of Health -- contrary to Administration's proposal -- in order to promote a culture of innovation.
- The U.S. Department of Education announced new updates to the College Scorecard, which shares data about the nation's colleges so that prospective students can compare institutions. The tool provides updated metrics for comparison, including post-graduate earnings averages by institution.
EVENTS NEWS YOU CAN USE
BU Technology Development is hosting a discussion on Wednesday, February 16th at 4:00 p.m. focused on demystifying the lab-to-market transition. Research often leads to discoveries that enable new products and services that solve critical problems and create positive societal impact. But the transition from research discovery to product development can feel mysterious. Join this virtual event to hear from a diverse group of current and former graduate students and faculty who have experience navigating this transition, and to honor BU Innovator of the Year Dr. Selim Ünlü.