{"id":24601,"date":"2026-01-29T14:26:55","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T19:26:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/igs\/?p=24601"},"modified":"2026-01-29T14:26:55","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T19:26:55","slug":"president-melissa-gilliam-outlines-bold-north-star-vision-for-boston-universitys-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/igs\/2026\/01\/29\/president-melissa-gilliam-outlines-bold-north-star-vision-for-boston-universitys-future\/","title":{"rendered":"President Melissa Gilliam Outlines Bold \u201cNorth Star\u201d Vision for Boston University\u2019s Future"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span>\u201cConvergence is the key to who we are, and who we can be\u2014it is our North Star,&#8221; said Boston University <\/span><span>President Melissa Gilliam in her first Presidential Address, outlining a bold vision for the future of BU.\u00a0Convergent research brings experts from distinct disciplines together to break down barriers, combine expertise, and collaborate\u00a0to solve complex challenges.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"white-space-pre\"><span>\u201cBoston University will be\u00a0<\/span><em>the<\/em><span>\u00a0global destination of discovery, education, and human connection\u2014an epicenter where disciplines, communities, and realities merge and visionary thinkers unite to create transformative experiences and solutions for the world\u2019s greatest challenges,\u201d Gilliam said.<\/span> <\/span><span><br \/>\n<\/span><span class=\"white-space-pre\"> <\/span><span><br \/>\n<\/span><span>The University assembled a group of faculty tasked with identifying critical areas \u201cwhere we can excel at convergent research,\u201d the president said. IGS Director <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/igs\/profile\/benjamin-sovacool\/\">Benjamin Sovacool<\/a> is among the Task Force members selected to lead this Initiative, along with other faculty who include several IGS affiliates: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/igs\/profile\/lucy-hutyra\/\">Lucy Hutyra<\/a> (College of Arts &amp; Sciences), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/igs\/profile\/jonathan-levy\/\">Jonathan Levy<\/a> (School of Public Health), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/igs\/profile\/deborah-carr\/\">Deborah Carr<\/a> (College of Arts &amp; Sciences), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/igs\/profile\/kevin-gallagher\/\">Kevin Gallagher<\/a> (Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies), and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/igs\/profile\/ken-lutchen\/\">Kenneth Lutchen<\/a><\/span><span class=\"white-space-pre\">\u00a0<\/span><span>(Vice President and Associate Provost for Research), who helmed the group.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span class=\"white-space-pre\"><span>\u201cBoston University will be\u00a0<\/span><em>the<\/em><span> global destination of discovery, education, and human connection\u2014an epicenter where disciplines, communities, and realities merge and visionary thinkers unite to create transformative experiences and solutions for the world\u2019s greatest challenges.&#8221;<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8211; President Melissa Gilliam<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span><\/span><span><\/span><span>The Task Force named global sustainability one of its eight priority areas of convergent research. Learn more in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/articles\/2026\/presidential-address-melissa-gilliam\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>BU Today<\/em><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Boston University Task Force on Convergent Research and Education named global sustainability one of its eight priority areas of convergent research.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23369,"featured_media":24605,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/igs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24601"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/igs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/igs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/igs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23369"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/igs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24601"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/igs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24601\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24608,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/igs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24601\/revisions\/24608"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/igs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/igs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/igs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/igs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}