Institute Director Honored with BU’s Highest Faculty Recognition
Hariri Institute Founding Director, Azer Bestavros, has been appointed a William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor, the highest recognition that BU bestows on faculty members. Bestavros and fellow appointee, Bonnie Costello (Professor of English, CAS), join 11 other BU faculty members who hold this title. The honor is a testament to Bestavros’ service to the University through his many teaching, research, and scholarship achievements.
In the announcement to the BU community, President Robert A. Brown commented:
Professor Azer Bestavros is the founding director of the Rafik B. Hariri Institute for Computing and Computational Science & Engineering, where he is leading initiatives on cloud computing, big data, and cybersecurity. The work of the Hariri Institute has been essential to the current data science collaboration across the University. His areas of expertise include networking, distributed computing, and high-assurance systems, and his research earned the ACM SIGMETRICS Test of Time Award, among other accolades. His widely recognized work (ranking him in the top 1% of the most-cited authors in computer science) has led to multiple patent applications, the formation of a start-up company, and over $20 million in externally funded research projects. He has served on numerous internal and external boards and committees, including the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center (MGHPCC) initiative, and has led interdisciplinary University initiatives, including the Data Science Initiative, the BU Computing Alumni Network, and the Council on Educational Technology & Learning Innovation. He also received the United Methodist Teacher/Scholar of the Year Award. He earned his PhD at Harvard University in Computer Science.
Brown credited Bestavros and Costello with raising the University’s stature as a major research institution and contributing significantly to the BU student experience.