Hariri Institute Affiliates Lucy Hutyra and Andrei Ruckenstein named A&S Distinguished Professors
Lucy Hutyra, Professor of Earth and Environment and Hariri Institute Core Faculty, and Andrei Ruckenstein, Professor of Physics and Hariri Institute Core Faculty, were among five professors named the inaugural cohort of Arts & Sciences Term Distinguished Professors by Arts & Sciences Dean Stan Sclaroff. This distinguished professorship was established to recognize Arts & Sciences faculty members of international renown, who have demonstrated a sustained record of excellence in research, teaching, and service.
Lucy Hutyra, A&S Term Distinguished Professor of Earth & Environment
Professor Hutyra’s expertise in ecosystem ecology and urban ecology builds on years of work examining the carbon cycle in forest and urban environments. Her work has been broadly recognized for significant insights and advancements in understanding urban environmental processes, culminating in a 2023 MacArthur Fellowship. Professor Hutyra has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles and chapters in edited volumes, including serving as a contributing author on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) AR6 Working Group III Mitigation of Climate Change chapter on Urban and Systems and Other Settlements. Her papers have been cited 16.5k times, and her h-index is 58. She has been awarded 39 research awards, including the prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER award and National Academy of Science Kavli Fellowship. She serves on the NASA Earth Science Federal Advisory Committee. Hutyra also serves as the Director of the BU Biogeosciences Program and the Associate Director for the BU URBAN interdisciplinary doctoral program. Beyond scholarly research, Hutyra has been a dedicated to graduate education, securing a $3 million NSF grant for training graduate students and receiving several awards for Excellence in graduate education.
Andrei Ruckenstein, A&S Term Distinguished Professor of Physics
Professor Ruckenstein is renowned for his interdisciplinary research spanning physics, biology, and computer science. His pioneering work in correlated electron systems is widely acknowledged as fundamental to the field of physics. His introduction of the marginal Fermi liquid theory challenged established paradigms and explained exotic properties of superconductors. His contributions outside of the field of correlated electrons includes proposing new models for gene transcription in bacteria and his current interdisciplinary research in computer science and cryptography. He has been recognized both nationally and internationally with the Senior Humboldt Prize, a Fellowship in the American Physical Society, the NASA Pioneer Award & NASA Patch of the International Space Station Commendation, a Sloan Fellowship, and an ONR Young Investigator Award. In addition to his broad research contributions, Professor Ruckenstein is an impactful leader. He has served as Chair of Physics, BU’s founding Vice President and Associate Provost for Research, and was also the founding president and chair of the executive committee of the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center, Inc., a first-of-its-kind collaboration between Boston University, Harvard, MIT, Northeastern, and the University of Massachusetts, to address some of society’s most complex technological, medical, and scientific challenges.
Read more about the inaugural cohort of BU Arts & Sciences Term Distinguished Professors on the CAS website.