Andrei Ruckenstein

Andrei Ruckenstein  joined Boston University in 2007 as BU’s founding Vice President and Associate Provost for Research. He is currently a professor of physics and previously was department chair. His current research is focused on problems at the interface between classical and quantum computing and, in particular, on a quantum statistical mechanics inspired approach to direct computation on encrypted data.

He is renowned for his interdisciplinary research spanning physics, biology, and computer science. In physics, his pioneering work in correlated electron systems is widely acknowledged as fundamental to the field. His introduction of the marginal Fermi liquid theory challenged established paradigms and explained exotic properties of superconductors. His contributions outside of the field of correlated electrons includes proposing new models for gene transcription in bacteria and his current interdisciplinary research in computer science and cryptography. He has been recognized both nationally and internationally with the Senior Humboldt Prize, a Fellowship in the American Physical Society, the NASA Pioneer Award & NASA Patch of the International Space Station Commendation, a Sloan Fellowship, and an ONR Young Investigator Award. 

In addition to his broad research contributions, Professor Ruckenstein is an impactful leader at the college and university level.  Ruckenstein was the founding president and chair of the executive committee of the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center, Inc., a first-of-its-kind collaboration between Boston University, Harvard, MIT, Northeastern, and the University of Massachusetts, to address some of society’s most complex technological, medical, and scientific challenges. Earlier, he held faculty positions at the University of California, San Diego, and at Rutgers University, where he was the founding Director of BioMaPS, a university-wide initiative focused on interdisciplinary research in biology at the interface with the mathematical and physical sciences. He also previously served as the director of the Superconductivity Summer School at the International Center for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy; as President of the Aspen Center for Physics; and as co-founder of the Aspen Science Center, a nonprofit organization promoting K–12 science education and the public understanding of science.