Full Calendar

Get the who, what, where, and when of BU research.

This calendar is a round-up of events related to research from around BU. Browse all upcoming events by date, or select an event topic to narrow your search.

All Topics (October 13 through November 13)

Tuesday, October 14

  • 1:00 PM
    Public Health Conversation: AI, Public Health, and Ethics.
    Dr. William J. Bicknell endowed this annual lectureship to provide “a periodic but regular infusion of iconoclasts and original thinkers who will bring ideas… that stretch, upset, stimulate, and leave us with renewed energy and commitment.” This year, we have asked speakers to consider the ethics of artificial intelligence use in the field of public…

Wednesday, October 15

  • 4:00 PM
    Research on Tap: AI for Life Sciences
    Advances in AI are having a growing impact across a wide range of scientific disciplines, including the life sciences. The emergence of large foundational models, including large language models and those trained on biological sequences, is unlocking new possibilities in synthetic biology, protein engineering, biomarker discovery, and more. The AI in life sciences market is…
    A human hand and an AI hand touch a brain in a recreation of Michaelangelo's The Creation of Adam
  • Urban Growth & Citizenship Machines
    Join the Initiative on Cities for a conversation with Boston University Professor Daniel Abramson, who will share insights from his forthcoming book, Designing Citizens. Abramson’s work explores postwar federal government complexes – from Boston to Honolulu – through the intersecting lenses of architecture, politics, and urban history. Designing Citizens reveals how these modernist buildings tell…

Thursday, October 16

Friday, October 17

Thursday, October 23

  • 4:00 PM
    2025 Paul Streeten Distinguished Lecture: A Proposal for a Climate Grand Bargain Based on Local Climate Damages
    The Boston University Global Development Policy Center is pleased to host the 2025 Paul Streeten Distinguished Lecture, featuring Professor Michael Greenstone, Milton Friedman Distinguished Service Professor in Economics and Director of the Energy Policy Institute and the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Growth at the University of Chicago. Professor Greenstone’s research, which has shaped policy…
  • Pathogens of Finance: How Capitalism Breeds Vector-Borne Disease
    Join in person or via Zoom us for a Global Health Politics Workshop with Brent Z. Kaup, Director of the Environment & Sustainability Program and Professor of Sociology, College of William & Mary. Kaup's work focuses on the ways in which liberal forms of economic organization transform the environment in ways that influence human health,…
  • Research on Tap: Parkinson Disease: From Bench to Bedside and Beyond
    Parkinson disease affects over 10 million people globally and is rapidly becoming the world’s fastest-growing neurological disorder. Yet, despite its widespread impact, there’s still much we don’t understand about its underlying causes, how to mitigate disease progression or overcome real-world challenges to improve quality of life. That’s where the researchers at Boston University come in.…
    Close-up of hands of caretake and Parkinson's patient with a cane

Friday, October 24

  • 8:00 AM
    Materials Day 2025
    Title:: Materials Day 2025: From Automation to Collaboration: The Future of Self-Driving Labs Abstract: Self-driving labs (SDLs) are powerful tools for materials research in which experiments are performed by robots and chosen by machine learning or artificial intelligence. This combination makes them highly effective at rapidly executing many consistent experiments that are intelligently chosen to…
  • 9:00 AM
    Materials Day 2025: From Automation to Collaboration: The Future of Self-Driving Labs
    Self-driving labs (SDLs) are powerful tools for materials research in which experiments are performed by robots and chosen by machine learning or artificial intelligence. This combination makes them highly effective at rapidly executing many consistent experiments that are intelligently chosen to best achieve a user-specified goal. This field has rapidly progressed with advances in machine…
  • 3:00 PM
    CISE Seminar: Alberto Abadie, Professor of Economics, MIT
    Alberto Abadie is an econometrician and empirical microeconomist with broad disciplinary interests. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from MIT in 1999. Upon graduating, he joined the faculty at the Harvard Kennedy School, where he was promoted to full professor in 2005. He returned to MIT in 2016, where he is a Professor of Economics.…

Monday, October 27

Tuesday, October 28

  • 9:00 AM
    Communicating Complexity: How to Explain Complex Ideas in Simple Words
    All BU PhD students and postdoctoral scholars are welcome to this event! Webinar: Shreya Ghosh, PhD, EMBL Communications Editor, will discuss different strategies, tips, and tricks for writing scientifically accurate yet engaging texts that are accessible to diverse audiences with or without a background in science. Fireside chat: Dr Ghosh will be available for 30…
  • 1:00 PM
    [The Engine] Tough Tech Talent Fair
    The Tough Tech Talent Fair connects mission-driven job seekers with the Tough Tech companies building transformative solutions across climate, energy, biotech, robotics, AI, and beyond. Whether you're exploring internships or looking to join a high-impact, high-growth team, this is your entry point into the Tough Tech ecosystem. ​Come meet startups, corporates, and other tech-adjacent organizations…

Wednesday, October 29

Thursday, October 30

  • 4:00 PM
    From Refugees to ‘Non-Criminal Collaterals’: Immigration after the Vietnam War and Now with Ben Tran
    This lecture explores the contrasting policies directed at refugees following the Vietnam War and the racialized criminalization of migrants today. It analyzes how the socio-political climate of the late 1970s and 1980s facilitated a relatively robust support system for Vietnamese refugees in the United States, characterized by humanitarian aid, community-building efforts, and federal programs aimed…
  • Research on Tap: Engineering the Future of Surgery
    Advances at the intersection of surgery and engineering are reshaping how we understand and treat disease. From next-generation devices, robotics, and bioengineering platforms, to AI-powered decision support and predictive modeling, these collaborations are unlocking new possibilities for improved surgical care and patient outcomes. This Research on Tap will bring together Boston University surgeons and engineers…
    Close-up of surgeons performing surgery

Monday, November 3

Tuesday, November 4

Thursday, November 6

  • 4:00 PM
    The Backstage of Democracy: India’s Election Campaigns and the People Who Manage Them
    With Amogh Dhar Sharma (Oxford University) Over the last decade, election campaigns in India have undergone a dramatic shift. Political parties increasingly rely on political consultants, spin-doctors, pollsters, and data-driven insights to mobilize voters. What is driving these changes? This talk explores the hidden arena of strategizing that takes place between politicians and a new…

Friday, November 7

  • 8:50 AM
    [Broad Institute] Machine Learning in Drug Discovery Symposium 2025
    This hybrid symposium highlights recent progress in the application of machine learning techniques to drug discovery and brings together researchers working in applying machine learning to target validation, hit identification and optimization, clinical trial design, biologics, and other areas of drug discovery for talks, poster sessions and networking. You can attend in-person for $25 (postdocs,…
  • 12:00 PM
    Religion and State Formation in South and Southeast Asia
    CURA announces the fall 2025 colloquium schedule. This year-long conversation brings together an interdisciplinary community of scholars of culture, religion, and world affairs. Please register below for the session(s) you plan to attend. The November 7 workshop will feature a paper by Farah Adeed, PhD Student, Department of Political Science, Boston University. Please note that…

Thursday, November 13

  • 3:00 PM
    CISE Seminar: Florian Dörfler, ETH Zürich
    Flörian Dörfler Florian Dörfler is a Professor at the Automatic Control Laboratory at ETH Zürich. He received his Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 2013, and a Diplom degree in Engineering Cybernetics from the University of Stuttgart in 2008. From 2013 to 2014 he was an Assistant…

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