Category: Research
The Health Policy Institute
The Health Policy Institute opens at Boston University. HPI today consists of the Management of Variability Program, the Health Care Entrepreneurship Program, Scholars in Health Policy Research Program, and the Center for Educational Development in Health. HPI is also affiliated with the Boston University Health & Disability Research Institute.
Whitaker Cardiovascular Institute
The Whitaker Cardiovascular Institute of Boston University Medical Center advances research, treatment, and education in the broad area of heart and vascular disease by providing a unified structure that integrates the components of basic science, clinical investigation, medical education, patient care, health-policy planning, and community research. The Institute has been designated a Specialized Center of Research in Hypertension and a Specialized Center of Research in Ischemic Heart Disease by the National Institutes of Health’s Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, which indicates that the Institute serves as a site for important medical research in the national interest. The Institute was also named a Center for Cardiovascular Proteomics through support from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.
The Gerontology Center
Created by School of Social Work professor Louis Lowy and School of Medicine professor F. Marott Sinex, the Gerontology Center is affiliated with the Geriatrics Section at Boston Medical Center and Boston University School of Medicine, and offers training opportunities in geriatric medicine and dentistry. School of Medicine Associate Professor Thomas Perls directs the world’s largest genetic study of people over 100 years old, and after analyzing the genomes of 308 centenarians and their siblings, discovers a “genetic booster rocket” for longevity. Amazingly, Perls and his researchers pinpoint a region on human chromosome 4 that is likely to contain a gene or genes associated with extraordinary life expectancy.
"With scientists at a company called Centagenetix in Cambridge, we’ve been working to find the gene that plays a role in life span."—ProfessorThomas Perls
BU doctors become co-directors of the Framingham Heart Study
In 1971, Boston University doctors become co-directors of the Framingham Heart Study, a landmark series of physical exams and lifestyle interviews that began in 1948 with 5,209 residents of Framingham, Mass. After more than 60 years, the study is one of the largest and longest-running epidemiological research projects in the world.
Institute for Philosophy & Religion
A unique, interdisciplinary forum dedicated to studying issues at the intersection of philosophy, religion, and public life, the Institute for Philosophy & Religion is conceived by a group of philosophers (called The Personalists) who were among Martin Luther King, Jr.'s teachers when he was a PhD candidate at Boston University. Over the years the institute's programs reflect broad concerns such as promoting social justice, founding pluralistic societies, and exploring the deepest questions about life as reflected in theological and philosophical discourse. Established with the cooperation of three academic units of Boston University—the Department of Philosophy, the Department of Religion, and the School of Theology—the institute is envisioned as a home for serious philosophical and religious reflection and hosts a popular lecture series on issues that cross boundaries between academic disciplines and between scholars and the educated public.
BU Marine Program
The Boston University Marine Program is founded at Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
Center for Educational Development in Health
The Center for Educational Development in Health is invited to move from the Harvard School of Public Health to the Health Policy Institute at Boston University. The CEDH team has taught courses on Educational Design and Evaluation at Harvard and Boston University since 1968 and authored several highly regarded, widely used texts on competency-based education and training.
"The wealth of this course is as a candle hidden under a bushel. I submit that this course should be known and readily available through the whole university as an 'inter-school' program….To briefly relate my personal experience, teaching is no longer arbitrary. Given a subject to teach, a lecture to present, a course to plan, there are logical and systematic approaches to these problems which firstly are student centered." — Elliott V. Miller, MD, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital
Mugar Library Completed
The Mugar Memorial Library is completed.
First Cancer Research and Teaching Lab Created
Boston University is the first university to combine a cancer research and teaching laboratory.
Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center
The Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University seeks to capture and document history by collecting the manuscripts from individuals who play significant roles in the fields of journalism, poetry, literature and criticism, dance, music, theater, film, television, and political and religious movements. Renamed the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center in 2003 to honor its founder, the center strives to preserve the documents and make them readily available to researchers while administering all legal copyrights and restrictions, and presenting extensive exhibitions, seminars, and tours for students, parents, alumni, various visiting groups, and members of the public.
