Yawkey Foundations Gift Goes to Work
Over the summer, the Yawkey Nonprofit Internship Program provides stipends for 14 BU sophomores and juniors. The program, which pays a stipend of $1,500 for an internship during the academic year and $3,000 for a summer internship, is funded by the Yawkey Foundations, which pledged $10 million in September 2014.
A CFA Center for All Things Beethoven
The new College of Fine Arts Center for Beethoven Research, a resource for all things Beethoven and a magnet for scholars from around the world, has been a work in progress since 2012. The center, based in the School of Music department of musicology and ethnomusicology, features a digitized library and is collaborating with Beethoven centers around the world to host events and conferences.
Meredith Vieira Urges Students to Embrace Nonconformity
Journalist and TV host Meredith Viera tells a Commencement crowd of 25,000 that being open to new possibilities isn’t always easy but warns: “Don’t ever be a conformist for convenience’s sake.”
Ann Cudd Appointed Dean of College of Arts & Sciences
Vice Provost of the University of Kansas Ann Cudd takes over as dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences on August 1. Cudd, a philosopher who studies oppression, adamantly opposes the idea of downplaying the liberal arts for more professionally oriented fields like business and technology. She believes the humanities teach us how to look at society differently and ask ourselves the tough ethical questions.
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.
University to Expand Big Data Expertise
The University Provost launches a data science faculty hiring initiative to bolster BU’s leadership in the burgeoning field and advance the University’s focus on interdisciplinary research. With more and more disciplines seeking to harness the power of data science, BU will hire up to six data scientists over the next three years in such areas as computer science, statistics, and systems engineering. Data scientists use mathematical models to analyze voluminous data and draw knowledge from it that can be used in a variety of applications, from health care and business to design and communications. The new faculty members will augment ongoing hiring in data-science-related disciplines.
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.
New Dean Chosen for College of General Studies
Natalie McKnight, who for the past year had served as interim dean of BU’s College of General Studies, is named dean by President Robert A. Brown and University Provost Jean Morrison. McKnight, a member of the CGS faculty since 1990, had held a number of key leadership positions within the college. As dean, McKnight will oversee the second largest undergraduate college at BU, with approximately 1,150 students.
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.”
Sargent College Welcomes VA Specialist Christopher Moore
Veterans Affairs official Christopher Moore is the new dean of BU’s Sargent College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences. For the past three years, Moore managed the VA’s Sensory Systems and Communications Disorders Program, and he spent the previous four years as a scientific review officer at the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.
