Announcing the Hariri Institute FY26 Fellowships and FY27 Focused Research Programs

10 Fellows and 4 Focused Research Programs Awarded

The Hariri Institute for Computing is pleased to announce its FY26 Fellowship awards and FY27 Focused Research Program (FRP) awards, recognizing researchers advancing innovative work in computing, AI, and computational science and engineering across Boston University.

The Institute awarded five Junior Faculty Fellowships (JFFs) and five Graduate Student Fellowships (GSFs), representing early-career faculty and exemplary 1^st and 2^nd year PhD students who are pursuing computationally-driven research with the potential for high impact. 

Four FRPs were also awarded to faculty-led multidisciplinary teams applying AI, machine learning, and computational modeling to biomedical and cognitive health challenges, including Alzheimer’s disease, cancer metabolism, neuro-AI, and biomolecular design.

“The Fellows and FRP awardees reflect the Hariri Institute’s commitment to fostering innovative interdisciplinary research at every stage — from emerging scholars to established multidisciplinary teams,” says Yannis Paschalidis, Director of the Hariri Institute. “The breadth and ambition of this year’s award recipients demonstrate how convergence across computing, AI, engineering, health, and the sciences can drive meaningful advances in research and innovation.” 

Each program drew a highly competitive pool of applicants, reflecting the depth and breadth of talent across our community. Please join us in congratulating the remarkable recipients of this year’s awards.

Learn more about our FY26 Fellows and FY27 FRP awards below.

• Meredith Brooks, PhD, Assistant Professor, Global Health (SPH)
• Wei-Lun (Harry) Chao, PhD, Associate Professor, Electrical & Computer Engineering (ENG)
• Boqing Gong, PhD, Assistant Professor, Computer Science (CAS)
• Jacob Nudel, MD, Assistant Professor, Surgery (Chobanian & Avedisian SOM)
• Paul Stillman, PhD, Assistant Professor, Marketing (Questrom)

We congratulate our FY26 JFF cohort and look forward to the impact they will make as members of the Hariri Institute JFF Community.

Learn more about our FY26 JFF award recipients here!

• Tianle Chen, Computer Science PhD Student (CAS). Advised by Professor Deepti Ghadiyaram.
• Rosalie Gendron, Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences PhD Student (Sargent). Advised by Professor Frank Guenther.
• Ilker Isik, Electrical & Computer Engineering Ph.D. Student (ENG). Advised by Professor Wenchao Li.
• Emily Kim, Bioinformatics PhD Student (CDS). Advised by Professors Jennifer Bhatnagar and Daniel Segrè.
• Yulu Qin, Linguistics PhD Student (GRS). Advised by Professor Najoung Kim.

We congratulate our FY26 GSF cohort and look forward to the impact they will make as members of the Hariri Institute GSF Community!

Learn more about our FY26 GSF award recipients here!

2027 Focused Research Programs Awards

FRP Title: “AI for Characterizing and Designing Biomolecular Interactions“

This FRP aims to establish BU as a leader in the application and interpretation of biological foundation models for biomedical research by pursuing two cross-cutting scientific goals—developing principled fine-tuning strategies for adapting foundation models to new biochemical problems and building interpretability tools that reveal what these models encode about biomolecular interactions—executed across three complementary interaction regimes that together enable cross-domain comparison no single-domain project could achieve. This FRP is sponsored by the Hariri Institute.

Learn more about this FRP.

FRP Leaders:

• Brian DePasquale, PhD, Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering (ENG)
• Diane Joseph-McCarthy, PhD, Professor of the Practice, Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry, and Materials Science & Engineering (ENG); Executive Director, Bioengineering, Technology & Entrepreneurship Center (BTEC)
• James Galagan, PhD, Professor, Biomedical Engineering, Microbiology, and Electrical & Computer Engineering (ENG)

Core and Affiliated Faculty:

• Karen Allen, PhD, Professor, Chemistry and Materials Science & Engineering (CAS)
• Brian Cleary, PhD, Assistant Professor, Computing & Data Sciences, Biomedical Engineering, and Biology (CDS)
• Ian Davison, PhD, Associate Professor, Biology (CAS)
• Alex Green, PhD, Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering (ENG)
• Mark Grinstaff, PhD, William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor; Professor, Translational Research, Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry, Materials Science & Engineering, and Medicine (ENG)
• Brian Kulis, PhD, Professor, Electrical & Computer Engineering, Systems Engineering, and Computer Science (ENG)
• John Misasi, MD, Assistant Professor, Virology, Immunology, and Microbiology (Chobanian & Avedisian SOM)
• Gareth Morgan, PhD, Research Assistant Professor, Medicine (Chobanian and Avedisian SOM)
• Sandor Vajda, PhD, Professor, Biomedical Engineering and Chemistry; Systems Engineering Affiliate (ENG)
• Wilson Wong, PhD, Professor, Biomedical Engineering (ENG)
• Meg Younger, PhD, Assistant Professor, Biology (CAS)

FRP Title: “Multi-Scale Neuro-AI for Striatal Learning: Machine Learning, Voltage Imaging, and Safe Perturbation Design“

This FRP will build a BU Neuro-AI community around multi-scale striatal learning by integrating neuromodulator recordings, voltage imaging, machine learning, and reinforcement-learning theory. Collaboration is essential because no single lab spans the measurement, modeling, and causal-testing capabilities needed to connect DA/ACh dynamics to interpretable learning rules and experimentally test them. This FRP is sponsored by the Hariri Institute.

Learn more about this FRP.

FRP Leaders:

Core and Affiliated Faculty:

• Wei-Lun (Harry) Chao, PhD, Associate Professor, Electrical & Computer Engineering (ENG)
• Brian DePasquale, PhD, Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering (ENG)
• Aditya Gangrade, PhD, Research Scientist, Electrical & Computer Engineering (ENG)
• Xue Han, PhD, Professor, Biomedical Engineering (ENG)
• Aldo Pacchiano, PhD, Assistant Professor, Computing & Data Sciences (CDS)
• Xuezhou (Jack) Zhang, PhD, Assistant Professor, Computing & Data Sciences (CDS)
• David Boas, PhD, Professor, Biomedical Engineering and Electrical & Computer Engineering (ENG); Director, Neurophotonics Center 
• Chandramouli Chandrasekaran, PhD, Assistant Professor, Anatomy & Neurobiology, Psychological & Brain Sciences, Center for Systems Neuroscience, and Biomedical Engineering (Chobanian & Avedisian SOM)
• Marc Howard, PhD, Professor, Psychological & Brain Sciences (CAS)
• Michael Economo, PhD, Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering (ENG)
• Anna Devor, PhD, Professor, Biomedical Engineering (ENG)
• Michael Hasselmo, PhD, Professor, Psychological & Brain Sciences (CAS)
• Aaron Mueller, PhD, Assistant Professor, Computer Science (CAS)
• Deepti Ghadiyaram, PhD, Assistant Professor, Computer Science (CAS)
• Boqing Gong, PhD, Assistant Professor, Computer Science (CAS)

FRP Title: “AI-Enhanced Biophysical Genome-Scale Modeling of Cancer“

This program aims to develop a computational “digital twin” of tumors by integrating genome-scale metabolism, spatial growth dynamics, and AI-driven regulatory modeling to predict cancer behavior and therapeutic targets. Its interdisciplinary approach, combining computational modeling, experimental validation, and machine learning, is essential for accurately capturing the complex, heterogeneous interactions within tumor microenvironments. This FRP is sponsored by the Hariri Institute. 

Learn more about this FRP.

FRP Leaders:

Core and Affiliated Faculty:

• Kirill Korolev, PhD, Associate Professor, Physics  (CAS) 
• Michelle Teplensky, PhD, Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering and Materials Science & Engineering (ENG)
• Weiwei Lin, PhD, Assistant Professor, Pharmacology, Physiology & Biophysics (Chobanian & Avedisian SOM); Associate Director of Proteomics Service Center
• Pawel Przytycki, PhD, Assistant Professor, Computing & Data Sciences (CDS)
• Liam Kelley, PhD, Postdoctoral Associate, Bioinformatics Program (CDS)

Special Track Health Data Science FRP

FRP Title: “Redefining Cognitive Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease Through Next-Generation Digital Cognitive Biomarkers“

The goal of this FRP is to establish BU as a global leader in the development of digital biomarkers of cognition that detect early cognitive decline and differentiate average cognitive aging from changes due to Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders by bringing together expertise in aging, neuropsychology, linguistics, biostatistics, engineering, data science, AI/ML, and computational methods. This Special Track Health Data Science FRP is co-sponsored by the School of Public Health Center for Health Data Science, the Clinical and Translational Science Institute, the Evans Center for Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research and the Digital Health Initiative at Hariri Institute.

Learn more about this FRP.

FRP Leaders:

• Stacy Andersen, PhD, Associate Professor, Medicine (Chobanian & Avedisian SOM)
• Katherine Gifford, PsyD, Associate Professor, Anatomy & Neurobiology (Chobanian & Avedisian SOM)

Core and Affiliated Faculty:

• Huitong Ding, PhD, Research Assistant Professor, Anatomy and Neurobiology (Chobanian & Avedisian SOM)
• Phillip Hwang, PhD, MPH, Assistant Professor, Epidemiology (SPH)
• Swathi Kiran, PhD, CCC-SLP, James and Cecilia Tse Ying Professor, Neurorehabilitation (Sargent); Director, Aphasia Research Laboratory; Research Director, Aphasia Resource Center
• Shariq Mohammed, PhD, Assistant Professor, Biostatistics (SPH) 
• Stefano Monti, PhD, Professor, Medicine, Computational Biomedicine, and Biostatistics (Chobanian & Avedisian SOM)
• Maria Varkanitsa, PhD, Research Assistant Professor, Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences; Assistant Scientific Director, Center for Brain Recovery (Sargent)

Visit the Hariri Institute website to learn more about our Junior Faculty Fellowship Program, Graduate Student Fellowship Program and Focused Research Program, or contact Katherine D’Angelo, Associate Director of Programs and Events at Hariri Institute at ktd@bu.edu.