Category: Research
Andrew Emili Heads New Center for Network Systems Biology
Andrew Emili, a professor in the MED biochemistry and CAS biology departments, becomes director of the new University-wide Center for Network Systems Biology. Emili aims “to create a highly collaborative, multidisciplinary research hub that tackles important fundamental questions in the field by forging new links with interested researchers across BU’s campuses, the greater Boston area, and the world.”
BU Wins $20M for NSF Engineering Research Center
The National Science Foundation awards BU a $20 million, five-year grant to create a multi-institution Engineering Research Center, with the goal of synthesizing personalized heart tissue for clinical use. The grant, which is renewable for a total of 10 years and $40 million, is designed to accelerate an area of engineering research—in this case, bioengineering functional heart tissue—that is likely to spur societal change and economic growth within a decade.
New Kilachand Center Links Key Research Disciplines
Boston University officially opens the $150M Rajen Kilachand Center for Integrated Life Sciences & Engineering, a 170,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art research facility that brings together life scientists, engineers, and physicians from the Medical Campus and Charles River Campus and promises to speed life-changing developments in the fields of human health, environment, and energy.
New Center to Advance Understanding of the Brain
Boston University creates the Neurophotonics Center and recruits one of the world’s preeminent researchers in the field to lead it. David Boas joins BU from the faculty at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he pioneered new technologies to see deep into the brain. His work has improved our understanding of the organ’s healthy functioning and offers new pathways to understand how strokes, migraines, Alzheimer’s disease, and other neurologic maladies affect it.
Rankings Put BU Among Best Nationally, Globally
Boston University continues to climb in the U.S. News & World Report rankings of best graduate schools in the country. Among BU’s professional schools, the School of Education moved up 9 notches, to 36th. Other BU schools that fared well in the 2018 rankings: the College of Engineering placed 34 out of 198 peers, and the School of Law 23rd of 197. BU’s School of Medicine was named 30th best for research and 34th for primary care education out of 118 schools nationally.
Trustee’s Gift Ignites Student Entrepreneurship
BU Spark!, a new incubator for technology-driven student entrepreneurship, comes to life thanks to a $1M gift from the Mullen Family Foundation. Based at the Rafik B. Hariri Institute for Computing and Computational Science & Engineering, BU Spark! will offer programs and resources to help students pursue next-stage development of projects.
BU and Red Hat Forge $5M Partnership
Red Hat, the world’s leading provider of open-source enterprise software, joins the University in a five-year partnership aimed at advancing research into emerging and translational technologies, such as cloud computing and big data platforms. The collaboration will involve researchers from both Red Hat and BU, and will provide opportunities for students, staff, and faculty to drive new ideas and new technologies. The plan includes support for two research labs, one at Red Hat’s new corporate space in Boston’s Seaport District and one on the Charles River Campus.
University Lands 32nd in U.S. News Global Rankings
BU places 32nd in this year’s assessment of global universities by U.S. News & World Report. The University matched last year’s ranking despite increased competition from a pool of universities that was expanded by one-third. BU also earns high marks in several academic disciplines. In a field of 200 programs evaluated, BU ranked 38 in neuroscience and behavior, 43 in molecular biology and genetics, and 56 in immunology. In a field of 400 programs evaluated, BU ranked 26 in physics and 63 in biology and biochemistry.
Award–Winning Professor Takes Over at Kilachand Honors College
Carrie Preston, an associate professor of English and director of the Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies Program at CAS, takes the helm of Kilachand Honors College, succeeding founding director Charles Dellheim who led the school since 2011. Preston is the recipient of a Peter Paul Career Development Professorship, the CAS Wisneski Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the University’s United Methodist Scholar/Teacher of the Year Award. She also received the national De La Torre Bueno Prize, given to a dance studies book, for Modernism’s Mythic Pose: Gender, Genre, Solo Performance (Oxford University Press, 2011). “I hope to develop a curriculum that attends to issues of diversity and multiplicity, prejudice and power, in a global context,” Preston says.
Surgeon and Former US Health Official to Lead New Health Innovation Institute
Jonathan Woodson, a vascular surgeon and former Assistant Secretary for Health Affairs for the US Department of Defense, is tapped to lead the University’s new Institute for Health System Innovation & Policy, based in the Questrom School of Business. Woodson, who served with the DOD from 2010 to 2016, assumes the Larz Anderson Professorship in Management and Professor of the Practice. A collaborative endeavor, the new institute will focus on expanding health system research initiatives, deepening connections between scholars, policymakers, and corporations, and advancing curricular initiatives across the University.
