BU Innovator Pioneers Devices in Astronomy, Microscopy
The director of the University’s cross-disciplinary Photonics Center, Thomas Bifano, is the 14th winner of the Innovator of the Year award, given to an “outstanding faculty member who has translated world-class research into an invention or innovation that benefits humankind.” A holder of 10 patents, Bifano is also chief technology officer of Boston Micromachines Corporation, a company he cofounded to develop and market deformable mirrors and other optics products.
As head of the Photonics Center—which is a hub for the study of light and development of technologies utilizing it—Bifano has helped many others nurture their own innovations. The center is home to 70 faculty research labs and the Business Innovation Center, which hosts tech, biotech, manufacturing, and medical devices start-ups and corporations.
Two BU Faculty Honored with Outstanding Teaching Awards
Professors Bobak Nazer and Fallou Ngom have each been honored with outstanding teaching awards.
Bobak Nazer, a College of Engineering associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and associate department chair for undergraduate programs, is being honored with the 2024 Gerald and Deanne Gitner Family Award for Innovation in Teaching with Technology. The award recognizes the faculty member or team that best exemplifies innovation in teaching by use, development, or adaptation of technology. It celebrates innovation that results in positive learning outcomes for undergraduate students and that is recognized or adopted by faculty colleagues within or outside BU. The award comes with a $10,000 stipend. Nazer was mainly recognized for transforming a course into 50 short videos containing animations with narrated explanations, which the student would watch before a lecture. This enabled lectures to guide further discussion and leave time for activities and games.
Fallou Ngom, a College of Arts & Sciences anthropology professor, won the Provost’s Scholar-Teacher of the Year Award—an honor that recognizes scholars who excel as teachers inside and outside the classroom and who contribute to the art and science of teaching and learning. Ngom’s research has helped to uncover an ancient writing system used by communities in West Africa. One of Ngom’s achievements was altering his sociolinguistics class, which relied heavily upon European languages (Dutch, French, Portuguese), to address a class who studied and spoke various African languages. This enabled the students to apply the complex sociolinguistic theories to languages that were familiar to them.
$1M Gift Bolsters American & New England Studies Program
PhD students in the American & New England Studies Program (AMNESP) can dream a little bigger next year thanks to an anonymous $1 million gift, part of which will create a new Public Humanities Fund to support research projects, award grants, and fund research-related activities beyond campus. Income from the gift, expected to start flowing during the 2024–2025 school year, will also fund academic fellowships, outside speakers, conference travel, and the like. But Joseph Rezek, a College of Arts & Sciences associate professor of English and AMNESP director, and the faculty are most excited about the Public Humanities Fund and its potential to expand opportunities beyond the campus and help recruit top students.
Three BU Researchers Elected AAAS Fellows
Being named an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow puts scholars in distinguished company—and a trio of Boston University researchers have just been selected for the honor.
Electrical and computer engineer Siddharth Ramachandran, physicist Bradley Lee Roberts, and biologist Daniel Segrè have been named AAAS Fellows for extraordinary contributions to their respective fields; they’ll be recognized at a special event later this year. The world’s largest scientific society, AAAS has elected fellows since 1874; this year marks the program’s 150th anniversary. During that time, more than 110 BU scholars have been selected for the award.
BU Electrical Engineer Vivek Goyal Named 2024 Guggenheim Fellow
Prediction-making algorithms play a critical role in College of Engineering Professor and Associate Chair of doctoral programs for electrical and computer engineering Vivek Goyal’s burgeoning research on improving microscope imaging. That research is in part what earned Goyal a Guggenheim Fellowship, a prestigious grant from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. His groundbreaking work in electron imaging has significant potential implications for biomedicine and manufacturing, among myriad other applications.
Each year, the foundation awards approximately 180 fellowship grants to individuals making significant contributions in the natural sciences, the social sciences, the creative arts, and the humanities.
BU Men’s Hockey heads to Frozen Four for Second Consecutive Year
The No. 2–ranked BU Terriers battled to a 28-9-2 record in pursuit of their sixth national title. They were dynamic all season, scoring the fourth-highest goals-per-game (GPG), 4.15, while conceding 2.44 GPG—good for the fourth-best margin in college hockey (2.72). BU beat RIT 6-3 on March 28, and then Minnesota by the same score on March 30, to win the Sioux Falls Regional. BU is led on offense by freshman sensation and Hobey Baker finalist Macklin Celebrini (CAS’27), whose 23 goals in 23 Hockey East games is a conference record.
Tenth Annual Giving Day Raises More Than $3.8 Million
More than 11,500 donors, supporting over 800 causes, made gifts in excess of $3.88 million on Boston University’s 10th Giving Day, April 3. Gifts came from all 50 states and 52 countries on the annual one-day fundraising event. “Terriers came out in force for this milestone Giving Day,” says Erika N. Jordan, BU vice president for alumni engagement. “The theme, Unstoppable BU, took hold and you could feel the energy leading up to April 3. A record number of challenges came in, ambassador sign-ups more than doubled, and the communication exchanges across campus were electric.”
Five Faculty Receive Edward Avedisian Professorships
Five faculty at the Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine have been named as the newest recipients of Edward Avedisian Professorships, which are funded out of the transformational $100 million gift from the late Edward Avedisian (CFA’59,’61, Hon.’22) and his wife Pamela (Hon.’23) in 2022 that also resulted in the renaming of the school. From the $100 million gift, $25 million was specifically designated to fund professorships. The ceremony to honor the second round of professorships was held on March 12.
BU Researchers Win $46 Million Grant for Osteoarthritis Research
A pair of researchers—David T. Felson and Tuhina Neogi, both professors of medicine at the Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine and also of epidemiology at the BU School of Public Health—have been trying to understand what causes osteoarthritis. They’re then using that information to find ways to slow its onset and provide more effective and targeted treatments. They have received a five-year, $46 million award to support their ongoing study, one of the largest awards BU’s medical school has received. The funding was given by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Aging.
FDA Clears Device with BU-Developed Technology That Makes Skin Cancer Detection Easier
A new noninvasive skin cancer detection device—powered by technology pioneered by Irving J. Bigio, a professor at Boston University’s College of Engineering—aims to make telling the difference between a benign or potentially harmful mark easier and faster. The US Food & Drug Administration recently cleared for US markets DermaSensor, which uses light and artificial intelligence to examine skin lesions and assess whether a patient should be referred to a specialist. “It’s a positive statement about BU’s commitment to interdisciplinary research that involves the engineering and physical sciences, as well as the medical school,” says Bigio, who also holds positions in BU’s Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine and College of Arts & Sciences physics department. “They are supportive of collaborative research across schools.”
