Category: Campus
New Military Health Center Up and Running
In light of the still largely unmet health needs of US service members and the breadth of expertise at BU, the School of Medicine launches the Center for Military & Post Deployment Health, which will coordinate the University’s many and various military-focused research and service projects.
University Sells BU Theatre
In a move that concludes a mutually rewarding 33-year partnership with the highly regarded Huntington Theatre Company, the University decides to sell the 890-seat theater on Huntington Avenue and move College of Fine Arts production, design, and black box facilities to the Charles River Campus.
Welcome the Questrom School of Business
The School of Management is renamed the Questrom School of Business in recognition of a $50 million gift to the School from Allen Questrom (Questrom ’64), retired chief executive officer of several of the nation’s largest department and specialty stores, and his wife, Kelli. The gift, given through the Allen and Kelli Questrom Foundation, is the largest in Boston University’s history, endows 10 faculty chairs, and enables planning to establish a new graduate program facility.
New Center for Interdisciplinary Innovation
President Robert A. Brown announces a new, state-of-the-art Center for Integrated Life Sciences & Engineering (CILSE) to give science a more prominent address on the University’s main thoroughfare. Breaking ground in spring 2015, this $140 million, nine-story research facility, scheduled to open in 2016, will bring together life scientists, engineers, and physicians from the Medical and Charles River Campuses. The building will be dedicated to systems neuroscience, cognitive neuroimaging, and biological design. With shared, flexible lab spaces, meeting rooms, and other common areas, CILSE is being designed to encourage the kind of collaborative, interdisciplinary research that will be the hallmark of 21st-century science. The center will contain lab space for approximately 160 researchers, postdoctoral students, and staff, 270 graduate students, and additional space for future faculty.
Center for Systems Neuroscience
As brain science takes a prominent position on the nation’s research agenda, BU launches a new interdisciplinary research center to explore the roots of psychiatric diseases and neurological impairments.
The Center for Systems Neuroscience (CSN) is led by Michael Hasselmo, a College of Arts & Sciences professor of psychological and brain sciences. The inaugural director, Hasselmo says the center’s researchers will work to further enhance the understanding of how brain systems mediate behavior. “We plan to build on the exciting research of neuroscience faculty at Boston University,” he says. “And we will foster new collaborations to generate experimental and computational advances in the field.”
New Pardee School of Global Studies Opens
The Pardee School of Global Studies is BU’s newest college and has the simple yet monumental mission of improving the human condition around the globe. It was founded with the $25 million donation of Frederick S. Pardee (Questrom’54, ’54, Hon.’06) and offers five majors: international relations, Asian studies, Middle East and African Studies, European Studies, and Latin American studies.
BU to Launch Joint MD/JD Program
Boston University will offer a joint Doctor of Medicine (MD) and Doctor of Law (JD) degree program starting in fall 2014, becoming only the second New England university, along with Yale, to offer the dual degree. The new program will be highly selective, initially accepting two students a year.
Citing the increasing interaction between the fields of health and law and recent changes to government regulations and health policy, MED and LAW administrators believe that the program will appeal to students interested in health care administration, health care legislation, medical licensing, and intellectual property issues focusing on medical research.
EPIC Welcomes Industry to BU
Companies like Apple and GE are bringing high-tech facilities back home from overseas. While a positive development, the problem is now there aren’t enough engineers trained in highly technological methods. The Engineering Product Innovation Center (EPIC) helps fill that void.
Funded through the University, ENG alumni and friends, and a $18.8M gift, the College of Engineering is transforming its curriculum so that all students, regardless of major, will graduate with a thorough understanding of how to develop new products, from concept and design through manufacturing and delivery. EPIC’s 15,000-square-foot space houses a computer-aided design (CAD) studio, demonstration areas, fabrication facilities, materials testing, and project management software. The facility has a flexible design and offers students supply chain management software, 3-D printers, robotics, laser processing, and around-the-clock digital access to the studio’s online resources.
“We’re hoping to set a standard for the training of engineers for the future manufacturing economy in this country,” says EPIC Director Gerry Fine, an ENG professor of the practice.
New Initiative on Urban Life
Outgoing Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, whose leadership transformed Boston, joins the BU faculty as codirector of the Initiative on Cities (IoC), which will convene the best current and former leaders of cities to share with academics and scholars from around the world their practical knowledge of how urban areas drive growth. The IoC will be affiliated with BU’s Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future and Graham Wilson, a College of Arts & Sciences professor and chair of political science, will codirect the IoC.
“Cities are the engines that drive regional growth,” says Menino. “Jobs, economic development, housing, and education all contribute to their success or failure, but it’s the leadership of those cities that makes the difference.”
Let Games Begin on New Balance Field
Over the summer, West Campus students watch a tired brick building and a parking lot transform into a 110,000-square-foot athletic field and state-of-the-art underground parking facility, made possible by a $3 million donation from Brighton-based shoe manufacturer New Balance. Returning students discover the bright green New Balance Field, which is dedicated by the Board of Trustees in a ceremony on September 19.
The new field essentially doubles BU’s playable green space and makes it possible to bring field hockey back to campus and to add men’s lacrosse to the roster of Terrier varsity teams, as well as to provide practice space for varsity teams and the more than 8,000 students who play intramural and club sports.
