B.U. Bridge is published by the Boston University Office of University Relations.

Contact Us

Staff

UNI professor honored

Sir Hans Kornberg, a UNI professor and a CAS professor of biology, has been elected an honorary member of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. The association is the principal forum for the dissemination of advances in science to the general public.
This month, Kornberg was also elected an honorary member of the U.K.'s Biochemical Society. He is already an honorary member of the biochemical societies of the United States, Germany, and Japan.

BU and NIH partner for biomedical scholarships

The bioinformatics program at ENG recently entered into a partnership with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that provides scholarships for up to six BU doctoral students in the bioinformatics field. This partnership will give students access to facilities and researchers at NIH and form the basis for strong scientific collaborations between the institutions' faculties.
Boston University is one of only two universities in the country to be awarded such funding. The partnership agreement also includes the appointments of seven world-renowned NIH senior scientists to adjunct professorships at BU.

Charles DiLisi, an ENG professor and director of the bioinformatics graduate program, says that the scholarship "is very competitive, so the selected few will be highly qualified. Last year there were nearly 400 applicants for 12 positions, and even students with GRE scores above 1400 could not be admitted." The students awarded the scholarships will receive full stipend and tuition benefits in their first year.

National Make a Difference Day

On Saturday, October 27, a team of Boston University volunteers will join groups from the greater Boston area in the 13th annual Serve-a-thon, City Year Boston's largest annual fundraiser. Students, staff, and faculty organized through BU's Community Service Center will help to raise over $500,000 while working with groups from across the city to make a lasting impact on their surroundings. "We're trying to bring together people from all over the city who wouldn't usually be working side by side," says City Year's Karen Fried.

Serve-a-thon volunteers will take part in a full day of service and education, hearing speakers including Mayor Thomas M. Menino and working on 25 impact sites designed to have a long-range effect on the Boston community. The focus of the BU team will be on strengthening ties between the Community Service Center and City Year while connecting with other service-oriented individuals in the Boston community.

"The whole experience is just about making someone else's day a little brighter," says Alisa Tenenholtz (SMG'04), who is managing the project for the Community Service Center. "We are not out to change the world -- just to change a small aspect of a little group of people's everyday lives. Knowing directly who your service is helping is the biggest reward."

Since 1986, the Community Service Center has provided students with the opportunity to improve the world around them. The center administers 10 yearlong programs and facilitates dozens of short-term projects like the Serve-a-thon.

The Community Service Center is using this year's Serve-a-thon to kick off a yearlong celebration of its 15th anniversary, which will include outreach-oriented activities to increase volunteerism and maintain campus involvement in the community.

26 October 2001
Boston University
Office of University Relations