Sean Mullen

Associate Provost for Graduate Affairs

Sean Mullen was appointed associate provost for graduate affairs in January 2025 and is a professor of biology in the College of Arts & Sciences (CAS). Sean provides leadership for the University’s graduate education initiatives, working closely with the provost and the deans to articulate an institutional voice and promote continued excellence in graduate education. Central to these efforts are supporting interdisciplinary and co-curricular education and research, working to increase interdisciplinary and professional development opportunities for BU’s 13,000 graduate students, and nurturing new collaborations between the Charles River Campus and Medical Campus graduate programs. Additionally, Sean works to enhance the quality of the full graduate experience through the ongoing development and review of graduate programs, the facilitation of University Fellowship programs, and the recruitment and retention of a strong, diverse pool of degree candidates. Sean’s oversight also includes University’s Academic Program Review process, which works to increase the quality and impact of programs on both campuses.

Sean has been a member of the BU faculty since 2010 and, prior to his appointment as associate provost, served as associate dean of the faculty of natural sciences in CAS. Within CAS, Sean led across a range of important areas both in research and organizationally, overseeing the hiring and recruitment of world-class faculty and graduate students, working with associate deans and chairs to forge strategic collaborations across disciplines and departments that build on BU’s existing research strengths, and advancing efforts to promote inclusive excellence in the sciences through active mentoring and development.

Sean is among the nation’s top scholars in the field of biodiversity and evolutionary biology, whose National Science Foundation-supported work seeks to better understand the origin and maintenance of diversity at all levels of biological organization – in particular, the role that life history evolution plays in driving adaptive diversification among Neotropical Adelpha butterflies. A past associate chair of ecology, behavior, and evolution faculty in biology within CAS, he has published dozens of articles in top peer-reviewed scientific journals, including Nature and Evolution, and is a frequent presenter at national conferences. Sean holds a PhD in ecology and evolutionary biology from Cornell University, an MS in biology from Villanova University, and a BS in biology from Dickinson College. He performed his postdoctoral work at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Learn more about the Office of the Associate Provost for Graduate Affairs.