Staff
Daniel Sheehan, PhD
Director of Operations
617-358-8126
Dr. Daniel Sheehan is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Rajen Kilachand Center for Integrated Life Sciences & Engineering. The building opened in early 2017 and houses a cohort of neuroscience and biological design research teams and centers, including the Biological Design Center, the Center for Systems Neuroscience, the Cognitive Neuroimaging Center, and the Neurophotonics Center.
As director of operations, he helps support research and center initiatives, coordinates new laboratory setup and installation, manages facilities and maintenance requests, and oversees events and community engagement within the Kilachand Center. In addition, Dr. Sheehan ensures smooth collaborations between the interdisciplinary faculty researchers, participating postdoctoral scholars, graduate students, research support staff, and BU central administration.
Prior to Dr. Sheehan joining the Kilachand Center team in January 2023, he worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Laboratory of Computational Neurophysiology led by Dr. Michael Hasselmo, utilizing in-vivo techniques to study navigation and memory processes in rodent models. He earned his BA in Psychology from San Diego State University, his master’s from BU’s Graduate Program in Psychology, and his PhD from the Brain, Behavior & Cognition program at Boston University.
Ben Reale
Administrative Manager
617-358-1693
Ben first joined the Boston University community in the summer of 2020 as part of the efforts to help open and run BU’s COVID Clinical Testing Lab. After continuing his work in COVID research at Harvard University’s Clinical Testing Lab, Ben returned to BU joining the Operations team at the Kilachand Center in November 2022. Ben assists in running the day-to-day operations of the building, including scheduling and coordinating hundreds of reservations yearly that take place on the first-floor event space. Additionally, Ben also provides administrative support to BU’s College of Arts and Sciences building located near Kenmore Square. Ben graduated from the University of Connecticut with a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry.
Brian Matute Diaz
Client Technology Analyst
(617) 358-8187
As Client Technology Analyst, Brian serves clients supported by Boston University IT-CTS, which includes dedicated IT support for the Kilachand Center. Brian has a background in coding and scripting with a focus on automation within the macOS environment, and has previously worked at Apple as a “Genius” leading customer tech support teams. Before his career in IT, Brian worked for ten years as both a professor and practitioner of law in Venezuela, and his clients included many large organizations in both the private and public sectors. In 2017, compelled by an increasingly oppressive regime, Brian left Venezuela with his wife to build his new life in Boston. In addition to being a tech enthusiast off hours, Brian enjoys writing, cooking, hiking, and cycling, and he is a huge fan of horror movies, metal music, and Barcelona FC soccer.
Jim Cooney
Communications Manager
617-353-4020
As Communications Manager, Jim is responsible for designing and implementing cohesive communication strategies for the Kilachand Center overall and the individual centers housed within. Jim creates and disseminates stories about scientific collaboration and discovery, raising the profile of the Kilachand Center as an innovative, world-class research hub. He also develops internal communication programming that helps to foster the Center’s dynamic and collaborative environment. Jim has an MA in Corporate and Organizational Communication from Northeastern University and a BA in Psychology from Cornell University. When not working at BU, Jim is a fiction writer and is currently working on a novel.