JFF Dillon Brout Receives Breakthrough New Horizons in Physics Prize
Recognized for advances in cosmic microwave background and supernovae cosmology Dillon Brout, Assistant Professor of Astronomy and Physics at Boston University and a Hariri Institute Junior Faculty Fellow, has been named a recipient of the 2026 New Horizons in Physics Prize — one of the most coveted honors for early-career scientists and part of the Breakthrough Prize Foundation awards, widely known […]
Boston University Faculty Brian DePasquale Named 2026 Sloan Research Fellow
Prestigious award recognizes the most promising early-career researchers in their fields By Maureen Stanton Theoretical neuroscientist Brian DePasquale has been named a 2026 Sloan Research Fellow, a prestigious honor recognizing “outstanding early-career faculty who have the potential to revolutionize their fields of study,” the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation announced today (Feb. 17). DePasquale is an […]
From Research to Policy Impact: BU’s Allison Portnoy Models RSV Prevention From Newborns to the Elderly
With NIH support, Portnoy is building the first dynamic model to guide country-specific RSV prevention strategies across all ages By Maureen Stanton With flu season upon us, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) cases are already rising. A leading cause of hospitalization in infants and older adults, RSV sends tens of thousands of people to the hospital […]
Boston University’s Sarah Milligan Launches First Comprehensive R Package Bringing Variational Autoencoders to Tabular Data
By Hariri Institute Staff Sarah Milligan, a 2025 Hariri Institute Graduate Student Fellow and PhD candidate in Biostatistics at the BU School of Public Health, has developed a groundbreaking R package that brings Variational Autoencoders (VAEs) to tabular data, the first comprehensive tool of its kind available in the R programming language. VAEs are a […]
Advancing Alzheimer’s Research through Multimodal Data and Digital Innovation
For Dr. Huitong Ding, the path to understanding Alzheimer’s disease runs through the data that captures everyday life—how people speak, sleep, move, and think. As a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Anatomy & Neurobiology at the Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine and investigator at the Framingham Heart Study, Ding’s research bridges data […]
NIH Awards $3.1M Grant to Kayhan Batmanghelich for Pulmonary Biomarker Research
AI-driven approach integrates Multi-Modal Data and Biomechanics for Better Diagnosis and Tracking of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) By Maureen Stanton Kayhan Batmanghelich, Assistant Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Hariri Institute Junior Faculty Fellow and AIR Affiliate at Boston University, was awarded a $3.1 million competitive renewal R01 grant from the National Institutes of […]
Using Big Data and Machine Learning to Tackle Fundamental Cosmological Questions
Junior Faculty Fellow Spotlight: Dr. Dillon Brout, Cosmologist. Astrophysicist. Data Enthusiast. By Margo Stanton How do we understand dark matter, dark energy, or the history and fate of the Cosmos? These are questions that Hariri Institute Faculty Fellow Dillon Brout seeks to answer through his research. Brout, assistant professor of astronomy and physics, is a […]
Graduate Student Fellow Masha Lazou is developing computational methods for drug discovery
Masha Lazou is a third-year PhD student, advised by Diane Joseph-McCarthy, Professor (ENG), and Sandor Vajda, Professor (ENG), and a 2024 Hariri Institute Graduate Student Fellow. Lazou’s research is in developing computational methods to enhance the understanding of protein structure ensembles. Lazou received her bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering from Boston University in 2022. The […]
Hariri Institute Graduate Student Fellow Spotlight: Xinyi Hu, CDS PhD Student
Hu’s research focus using multimodal data integration to predict neurodegenerative diseases by John Eaton Xinyi (Selena) Hu is an incoming Hariri Institute Graduate Student Fellow and a second year PhD student in the Center for Computing & Data Science studying algorithmic and statistical modeling, as well as machine learning. Since starting the doctoral program, Hu has […]
Graduate Student Spotlight: Ryan Senne, Computational Neuroscience PhD Student
How does the brain implement adaptive decision-making strategies? By Hariri Institute Staff Hariri Institute Graduate Student Fellow Ryan Senne studies how the brain implements adaptive decision-making strategies, focusing on internal systems like neurotransmitters and astrocytes, and developing state-of-the-art machine learning models to describe datasets. His research interest is at the intersection of machine learning, statistical […]