President-Elect Melissa Gilliam Names New Provost, Fills Key Senior Staff Posts
President-Elect Melissa Gilliam has named three critical appointments to her leadership team. Gloria Waters will become the University’s provost and chief academic officer, Christopher Sedore will direct Information Services & Technology, and Christine Wynne will become chief of staff to the president.
Ethicist and Theologian Named MLK Professor of Religion & Black Studies
Emilie Townes, dean emerita of Vanderbilt’s Divinity School, will become STH’s new Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor of Religion & Black Studies effective July 1. According to STH, the professorship honors King (GRS’55, Hon.59) “by modeling the moral authority, prophetic vision of justice, peace, and love, ethical leadership, and global consciousness that he advocated for and embodied.” Townes’ scholarship delves into womanist and Black theology, as well as racial health disparities and environmental racism.
BU Researcher Named a 2024 Hertz Fellow
Emmy Blumenthal (CAS’23) has been named a 2024 Hertz Fellow—one of just 18 this year. Blumenthal, who is preparing to start a PhD program, specializes in biophysics and has been ranked among the nation’s “most promising innovators in science and technology.”
Boston University Removes the Myles Standish Name from Dorm
The executive committee of the BU Board of Trustees approved the name change on May 16. The dorm, on Beacon Street just outside of Kenmore Square, will be known by its address, 610 Beacon Street. The decision was made based on Standish’s history as a military leader of the Plymouth Colony in the early 1600s, during which he was known for his brutality toward members of local tribes.
Boston University’s 151st Commencement
After a morning marked by a cold drizzle, the rain abated as approximately 3,700 members of the Class of 2024 marched onto Nickerson Field for Boston University’s 151st Commencement, where they were cheered by an estimated 20,000 family members and friends.
BU alum David Grann, the best-selling author of Killers of the Flower Moon and The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, delivered the Commencement address. In his speech, Grann (GRS’94) recounted with humor and self-deprecation, his reporting for a New Yorker magazine story about the efforts by a giant squid hunter to capture one of the ocean’s most elusive creatures. Prior to his remarks, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree.
Other honorary degree recipients were Rev. Walter E. Fluker, Martin Luther King, Jr., Professor Emeritus of Ethical Leadership at BU and the current Distinguished Professor of the Howard Thurman Center at Hartford International University for Religion & Peace, who received an honorary Doctor of Laws; Claudia Goldin, Henry Lee Professor of Economics at Harvard University and winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize in economics, who was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws; and trustee emeritus Kenneth Feld (Questrom’70), former trustee and chair of Boston University’s Board of Trustees and chair and CEO of Feld Entertainment, who received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters.
From Masks to Mortarboards: Class of 2024 on Four Unique Years
When the Boston University Class of 2024 began their college journey nearly four years ago, no one knew what to expect. The nation, and the world, was still in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic. In a letter to the BU community just weeks before their arrival, Robert A. Brown, then BU president, wrote: “Life on campus will not look or be the same as it was last fall.”
What the freshmen encountered was a world of mandatory mask-wearing and testing, strict social distancing, and a hybrid learning model, known as Learn from Anywhere, that provided in-person and remote learning options. Even in the dining halls, it was grab and go. Students struggled with the isolation imposed by all the restrictions. The challenges were especially daunting for these freshmen, who had to grapple with how to make friends and launch their college careers under extraordinary conditions.
Yet, amid all the uncertainty, the Class of 2024 demonstrated remarkable resilience, quickly embracing online platforms for social interaction and discovering innovative ways to stay connected with one another.
In May 2024, as they prepared to graduate from BU, the Class of 2024 looked forward to a celebratory Commencement—something most of them had to forego as high school seniors. As they gathered with family and friends on Nickerson Field, they carried with them lessons learned, friendships forged, and the fighting spirit that has marked their four years here.
The Winners of the 2024 Metcalf Awards, BU’s Top Teaching Honors
Yuri Corrigan, a College of Arts & Sciences associate professor of Russian and comparative literature, has earned this year’s Metcalf Cup and Prize, the University’s highest teaching award. He was honored at the 2024 Commencement ceremony on May 19 alongside two other faculty members—Veronika Wirtz, a School of Public Health professor of global health, and Alexis Peri, a CAS associate professor of history—the recipients of this year’s Metcalf Awards for Excellence in Teaching.
Created in 1973, the Metcalf Cup and Prize and the Metcalf Awards for Excellence in Teaching are a gift from the late Arthur G. B. Metcalf (Wheelock’35, Hon.’74), a BU Board of Trustees chair emeritus and a former professor. The program gives $10,000 to the Cup and Prize winner and $5,000 each to the Metcalf Award winners. A University committee selects winners based on statements of the nominees’ teaching philosophy, supporting letters from colleagues and students, and classroom observations of the nominees.
BU Softball Claims Patriot League Title
After seven innings of scoreless softball sent the game to extra innings Saturday, Boston University scored the title game’s only run to claim the Terriers’ fifth Patriot League title in six seasons.
Undefeated in conference play and 52-4-1 overall, the No. 21/22 Terriers defeated Lehigh (32-20) 1-0 at the BU Softball Field on May 11.
In a matchup of the Patriot League’s two highest-scoring offenses, defense and pitching would define this year’s title match. Second baseman Brooke Deppiesse (CAS’26, Questrom’26) broke through in the eighth, stroking the game’s only extra-base hit, a double, and later scoring on a fielding error. Allison Boaz (ENG’23, GRS’24) pitched 6.1 shutout innings before PL Pitcher of the Year Kasey Ricard (Sargent’26) would strike out the side to secure Patriot League gold.
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.
