CAS Prof Receives Medal for Science
CAS Prof Alfred Tauber receives the Institute for Advanced Studies’ highest honor
Alfred Tauber, a College of Arts and Sciences professor of philosophy and the Zoltan Kohn Professor of Medicine at the School of Medicine, has been awarded the highest honor of the Institute for Advanced Studies (ISA), the 2008 ISA Medal for Science. The ISA is part of the University of Bologna.
“The University of Bologna is the oldest university in the world and has a certain mystique about it,” says Tauber, director of BU’s Center for Philosophy and History of Science. “To be recognized by their faculty is most gratifying.”
Tauber will receive the award at a public ceremony on May 7 at the Academy of Science in Bologna, where he will deliver a general lecture on his studies.
The medal is presented “in recognition of research contributions characterized by both excellence and influence,” according to the ISA. Tauber’s research deals with scientific epistemology, which includes positivism, reductionism, and the relationship of facts and values. He also works to bridge biomedicine and the humanities.
When Tauber closed his MED laboratory and joined the philosophy department in 1993, he says that he was asked why he was making the drastic change. “I always said science was a branch of philosophy,” he says. “I am just investigating in a different way — it seems to have worked.”
Rebecca McNamara can be reached at ramc@bu.edu.
Comments & Discussion
Boston University moderates comments to facilitate an informed, substantive, civil conversation. Abusive, profane, self-promotional, misleading, incoherent or off-topic comments will be rejected. Moderators are staffed during regular business hours (EST) and can only accept comments written in English. Statistics or facts must include a citation or a link to the citation.