Lifetime honor for a longtime BU and engineering education leader who has championed the convergent research approach and pioneered advances in lung care
A scholar at the forefront of respiratory mechanics and an innovative leader in higher education, Kenneth Lutchen, Boston University’s senior advisor to the president on strategy and innovation, has been named an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow. The world’s largest general scientific society, AAAS annually bestows this honor on scientists, engineers, and innovators in recognition of scientifically and socially distinguished achievements throughout their careers. A panel of Lutchen’s peers elected him a fellow to formally recognize his “seminal work in modeling structure-function relationships in the lung, and for developing new paradigms for mechanical ventilation.”
Lutchen, who served as BU’s interim provost and chief academic officer from 2023 to 2024, is also dean emeritus of the BU College of Engineering, where he is a professor of biomedical engineering. He first made his name as an expert in pulmonary physiology, publishing more than 150 peer-reviewed journal articles, which have been cited more than 10,000 times.
“Ken is the ninth member of the BU College of Engineering faculty to receive this lifetime honor from AAAS. That is a testament to our prominence in engineering scholarship—and that prominence is due in no small part to Ken’s efforts here as dean for 17 years,” says Elise Morgan, ENG dean ad interim and Maysarah K. Sukkar Professor of Engineering Design and Innovation. “One of his great strengths is the ability to inspire people to work across disciplinary boundaries, and to attract and retain faculty who are extraordinarily gifted in interdisciplinary inquiry.”
Read the full story at BU’s The Brink