Promotions to Full Professor on the Charles River Campus
From Dr. Gloria Waters, University Provost and Chief Academic Officer
President Gilliam and I are delighted to announce the promotion of 23 members of our Charles River Campus faculty to the rank of full professor at Boston University.
At the heart of great universities are outstanding faculty, whose scholarship and teaching advance our understanding of the world around us, produce research discoveries that improve our quality of life, and prepare new generations for success and leadership in the workforce. The individuals we recognize today are leaders in their respective disciplines and in their classrooms. As the world and institutions like BU navigate daily change that impacts our communities and missions, they are rising to the challenge by pursuing new areas of inquiry, employing innovative approaches, and helping launch entirely new fields of study through exciting collaborations with colleagues across departments, schools, and campuses. In doing so, they exemplify each day the depth and excellence of Boston University’s talented academic community. We are proud to count them as members of our faculty and excited to see them reach this significant milestone here at BU.
Evan Apfelbaum, Questrom, Management & Organizations, investigates widely accepted assumptions about diversity, equity, and inclusion in organizational contexts, focusing on organizational transparency and diversity, behavioral change in organizations, and developmental psychology and intergroup relations. A recipient of Questrom’s Molly McCombe and T.J. Callahan Faculty Research Award and the Best Symposium Award (Management, Education, and Development Division) from the Academy of Management in 2023, he has been named one of the Top 40 Business Professors Under 40 by Poets & Quants and is an elected fellow of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. He has published numerous book chapters and articles in leading journals, including the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Management Science, and Organization Science.
James Bird, ENG, Mechanical Engineering, researches the physics of droplets and bubbles, with applications spanning forensic science, biofouling prevention, aerosol formation, and disease transmission. His work explores how bubbles burst, how droplets spread, and how fluids interact with surfaces, producing insights that impact environmental sustainability, industrial processes, and biomedical engineering. He has published in top scientific journals, including Nature, Science, Physical Review Letters, and Nature Communications and been featured in popular outlets like Physics Today, Chemical & Engineering News, and PBS’s NOVA.
Brooke L. Blower, CAS, History, studies modern American political culture, travel, and war in urban and transnational contexts, examining assumptions about US exceptionalism. She has authored and edited numerous award-winning books and articles, including most recently, Americans in a World at War: Intimate Histories from the Crash of Pan Am’s Yankee Clipper (2023). A frequent keynote speaker and winner of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations’ Bernath Lecture Prize, she has received several major awards supporting her work, including a National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholars Fellowship and the American Council of Learned Societies’ Frederick Burkhardt Fellowship.
Patricia Cortes, Questrom, Markets, Public Policy & Law, is a labor economist with expertise in the effects of immigration on labor market activity and gender disparities in the workforce. Her immigration research has been cited extensively in presidential and congressional economic forecasting models, with recent work on gender disparities and their causes being utilized by policymakers and private industry. She has published numerous articles in top economics journals, including The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Review of Economic Studies, and the Journal of Labor Economics. She is currently a Dean’s Research Scholar at Questrom and received the school’s McCombe and Callahan Faculty Research Award in 2023.
Mary Dunlop, ENG, Biomedical Engineering, specializes in synthetic biology, microbial systems, feedback control, single cell methods, antibiotic resistance, metabolic engineering, deep learning, and optogenetics. Her research is supported by major grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF), and she serves as her department’s vice chair. A past NSF CAREER Award winner, she is a fellow of the American Institute of Medicine and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) and has garnered numerous honors for her lab and classroom work, including BU’s Award for Excellence in Mentoring Postdocs, the College of Engineering’s Faculty Service and Teaching Excellence awards, the NSF Transitions Award, and a US Department of Energy Early Career Award. She has published 75 articles in top-tier biomedical journals.
Marco Gaboardi, CAS, Computer Science, studies foundational methods to make computer programs more trustworthy and secure. His recent efforts have focused on developing formal techniques, using ideas from mathematical logic and probabilities to guarantee that computer programs respect data privacy. His work has been consistently published in top-tier journals and supported by several grants from the NSF and the US Census Bureau. He is a past recipient of an EU Marie Curie Fellowship, an NSF CAREER Award, a Caspar Bowden Award for Outstanding Research in Privacy Enhancing Technologies, and a Google Research Award.
Andrei Hagiu, Questrom, Information Systems, focuses his research on digital platforms and their business and policy implications. He has written extensively on multi-sided platforms, particularly regarding platform design and governance as well as regulations. More recently, his research has expanded to the consideration of online data and data policies in business value creation. He has published one book, three book chapters, and numerous peer-reviewed articles in leading economics and management journals such as Management Science, RAND Journal of Economics, and Harvard Business Review. He was named to the Thinkers50 Radar list in 2020 and is currently a Dean’s Research Scholar at Questrom.
Karin Hendricks, CFA, Music Education, teaches courses in instrumental music education, sociology and psychology of music, music and social justice, and contemporary and alternative approaches to music learning. She is a past winner of BU’s Metcalf Cup and Prize and currently serves as associate director of the School of Music. She has authored numerous books, including Compassionate Music Teaching (2018) and most recently, Daring to Care with Music Education (2025), along with dozens of articles in leading music publications, including Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education, International Journal of Music in Early Childhood, Journal of Music Teacher Education, and Music Educators Journal. She was recently elected president of the American String Teachers Association.
Douglas Holmes, ENG, Mechanical Engineering, explores how structures bend, wrinkle, and snap under various forces. His work focuses on slender structures and soft materials, ranging from airplane wings and human hair to robotic grippers inspired by origami, leading to the development of new materials and devices with applications in robotics, aerospace, and biomedical engineering. He has published extensively in journals such as Science Robotics, Advanced Functional Materials, and Matter, with lead articles in Physical Review Letters and Soft Matter on self-ordering of buckling beams and elastogranular mechanics.
Deborah L. Jaramillo, COM, Film & Television, studies the history of the radio and television industries in the United States, focusing primarily on the commercial capture of broadcasting and its implications for media’s creative, educational, and informational functions. She has published two books, including The Television Code: Regulating the Screen to Safeguard the Industry (2018), and is currently writing a third on the construction of death in non-fiction radio, television, and podcasting. Her articles have appeared in numerous edited volumes and journals, including Communication, Culture, and Critique and Journal of Radio and Audio Media. She is an associate editor of Television and New Media and a research associate for the National Recording Preservation Board’s Radio Preservation Task Force.
Cara L. Lewis, Sargent, Physical Therapy, is a physical therapist and biomechanist who investigates the role of movement and joint load in the development of hip structure, function and pain. Her current NIH-funded work focuses on the prevention and treatment of variant hip morphology, such as femoroacetabular impingement syndrome and acetabular dysplasia, with the goal of reducing hip pain and preventing osteoarthritis. She has published over 95 peer-reviewed articles and provided over 140 presentations at national and international conferences. She also serves on the editorial boards for the Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapyand Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation Journal and on the editorial advisory board for the Journal of Biomechanics.
Petro Lisowsky, Questrom, Accounting, researches corporate taxation and its effects on financial reporting, operations, and competition. His work examines how businesses navigate the complexities of tax systems, particularly emphasizing corporate tax avoidance, market effects of taxation, and financial reporting related to tax uncertainties. His articles have appeared in leading accounting journals, including the Journal of Accounting Research, The Accounting Review, and Contemporary Accounting Research. He is a past recipient of Questrom’s Broderick Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Undergraduate Community and serves on the editorial boards of The Accounting Review and Contemporary Accounting Research.
Pinghua Liu, CAS, Chemistry, is a bioorganic chemist researching natural product biosynthesis and the chemical basis of the biological clock. Supported by grants from the NIH and NSF, including an NSF CAREER award, he has been recognized for contributions towards mechanistic studies of metalloenzymes and their potential in the development of novel therapeutics for chronic aging-associated diseases. He has published 67 papers in distinguished chemistry journals and obtained four patents.
Daniel P. Miller, SSW, Human Behavior, Research, and Policy, is a social policy researcher whose work focuses primarily on poverty, food insecurity and food and nutrition assistance programs, and the determinants and effects of fathers’ involvement in families. He has published two book chapters and 48 peer-reviewed articles in high-impact journals, including Child Development, The American Journal of Public Health, Pediatrics, and Social Service Review. A fellow of the Society of Social Work and Research, he has garnered several major awards, including the Excellence in Research Award from the Society for Social Work and Research, the John M. Eisenberg Article-of-the-Year Award, and the Best Research Article Award from the Men in Families Focus Group of the National Council on Family Relations. He additionally serves as a lead researcher for the Philadelphia Economic Equity Project, a regional study of poverty and economic well-being.
Jordana Muroff, SSW, Clinical Practice, is a researcher-clinician who focuses on the development of mental health interventions that are more easily accessible and culturally and linguistically responsive. She is particularly interested in health technology innovations that help reduce health inequities and stigma and improve access to mental health services for underserved populations. She has led federal, state, and foundation funded research studies in collaboration with community agencies and was lead author of the book, Group Treatment for Hoarding Disorder: Therapist Guide (2014). Her research has been featured in leading journals such as the American Journal of Public Health and Depression and Anxiety, and she is editor of the Oxford University Press ABCT Clinical Practice Series.
Alex Olshevsky, ENG, Electrical & Computer Engineering, researches reinforcement learning, multi-agent control, and distributed optimization. His work seeks to enhance our understanding of how classical gradient methods can be adapted for reinforcement learning and has enabled the creation of faster, more reliable algorithms. He is a past NSF CAREER Award winner and has received an Air Force Office of Scientific Research Young Investigator Award, the INFORMS Prize for best paper at the intersection of operations research and computer science, and an International Medical Informatics Association Award for best clinical informatics paper. He has published dozens of articles and papers in leading engineering journals and conference proceedings, including SIAM Journal on Control and Optimization and Algorithmica.
Juan Ortner, CAS, Economics, is a microeconomic theorist with research interests in pure and applied theory. His research covers collusion, bargaining, and dynamic contracting, with recent work focused on developing statistical screens to detect collusive behavior in markets and designing mechanisms to mitigate its effects. He has published extensively in top economic journals, including Econometrica, the Journal of Political Economyand the Review of Economic Studies. In 2022, he was awarded the American Antitrust Institute’s Jerry S. Cohen Memorial Fund Writing Award for Best Antitrust Article on Collusion in Auctions, and in 2024 he won the Best Paper Award of the Association of Competition Economics. He is currently an editorial board member at the American Economic Review.
Joshua Pederson, CGS, Humanities, examines the intersection of religion and philosophy in 19th and 20th century literature and culture. He has published two books: The Forsaken Son: Child Murder and Atonement in Modern American Fiction (2016), which explores trauma studies through the lens of atonement theology as seen in six modern American novels; and Sin Sick: Moral Injury in War and Literature (2021), which investigates the damage perpetrators experience as a result of the harm they inflict on others. Additionally, he has published nine peer reviewed articles, three book chapters, and numerous book reviews and op-eds. A frequent conference presenter, he recently received a grant from the Philanthropy Lab to create and teach a course called “Giving Well” on best practices in philanthropic giving. He serves on the Modern Language Association’s Executive Committee on Religion and Literature.
Shelly Rambo, STH, is a constructive theologian whose research connects theology to trauma theories, sociology, psychology, neuroscience, ethnography, feminist philosophy, literary analysis, and chaplaincy studies. A recipient of the Yale Alumni Award for Distinction in Theological Education, she is supported by several major grants, including a $1 million Lilly Endowment grant for “Trauma Responsive Congregations” and a Luce Foundation grant for “Educating Effective Chaplains.” She has authored two monographs, including 2018’s Resurrecting Wounds: Living in the Afterlife of Trauma, and co-edited two volumes, along with dozens of book chapters, peer-reviewed articles, and papers in leading theological and religious journals. Her most recent work has positioned Howard Thurman as a vital resource for chaplaincy, spiritual care, and understanding the intersections of trauma and theology.
Darren Roblyer, ENG, Biomedical Engineering, researches and develops new label-free imaging modalities to diagnose disease and monitor therapies. A main thrust of his lab is development of new wearable and handheld technologies that can provide earlier assessments of therapy effectiveness for cancer, cardiovascular diseases, kidney disease, and other disorders. He is supported by numerous grants from the NIH and NSF and serves as graduate chair for the Department of Biomedical Engineering. A senior member of the International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE), he is the founding editor in chief of SPIE Biophotonics Discovery, a US Department of Defense Era of Hope Scholar, and an American Cancer Society Research Scholar. He has published 165 articles in top-tier biomedical journals.
Chris Wells, COM, Emerging Media Studies, studies digital media, public opinion and political culture, focusing on how news media coverage takes shape, how citizens learn about politics, and how they choose to participate. He is a founding member of the Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences and affiliate faculty with the Institute of Global Sustainability. His most recent projects – supported by the Hariri Institute for Computing, the Institute for Global Sustainability, and the Knight Foundation – examine the veracity of online information about climate change and the sociopolitical roots of our country’s epistemic crisis. He has published two books, including 2015’s The Civic Organization and the Digital Citizen: Communicating Engagement in a Networked Age, along with 45 academic articles and proceedings and 16 book chapters. He is associate dean for faculty development at COM.
Wilson Wong, ENG, Biomedical Engineering, researches smart medicines and diagnostics with synthetic biology, developing ways to control mammalian cell functions through engineering, biological network design, molecular biology, and chemical biology for medical applications, such as CAR T cell therapy. A past NSF CAREER Award winner, he is supported by numerous grants from the NSF and NIH and has received an Allen Distinguished Investigator Award, an American Chemical Society Synthetic Biology Young Investigator Award, and an NIH Director’s New Innovator Award. He has published 113 articles in top-tier biomedical journals.
Jason Yust, CFA, Music, Music Theory, bridges the fields of music theory and mathematics, exploring their relationship throughout musical history since the Baroque era. He has made significant contributions toward the development of mathematical modeling of rhythmic structures from cultures around the world, analysis of musical cognition and perception, and the history of music theory. A frequent conference presenter, he is editor in chief of the Journal of Mathematics & Music, and his articles have appeared in leading publications, including Journal of Music Theory, Music Theory Spectrum, and Journal of New Music Research. His 2018 book, Organized Time: Rhythm, Tonality and Form, won the Wallace Berry Award from the Society for Music Theory, the field’s most prestigious prize.
Please join me in congratulating these wonderfully talented colleagues on their recent promotions and in wishing them success in their new ranks.
Promotions to Full Professor on the Charles River Campus – 4.29.25