2022-2023 Career Development Professorship Awardees

From Dr. Jean Morrison, University Provost and Chief Academic Officer

Each year, Boston University has the pleasure of awarding Career Development Professorships to a number of talented junior faculty members emerging as future leaders within their respective fields.

Presented to promising junior faculty early in their careers at BU and who have held no prior professorships, these awards are made possible through the generous support of BU Trustees Peter Paul (Questrom ’71) and Ruth Moorman (CAS ’88, Wheelock ’89,’09) and her husband Sheldon Simon; alumni Nathaniel Dalton (LAW ’91) and Amy Gottleib Dalton (LAW ’91); the estates of Isabel and Larz Anderson and School of Medicine alumnus Ralph Edwards (MED ’52); and an alumnus who wishes to remain anonymous.

The awards include a three-year, non-renewable research award designed to support research, scholarship, and creative work, as well as defrayal of a portion of the recipients’ salary. Nominations are submitted by the academic deans, and awardees are selected by the Office of the Provost. The following professorships were awarded this year:

• The Peter Paul Career Development Professorship recognizes a faculty member in the School of Medicine.
• The Moorman-Simon Interdisciplinary Career Development Professorship recognizes a faculty member who is conducting truly interdisciplinary work and either holds or has the potential to hold appointments in multiple schools and colleges at BU.
• The Cecile Kaplan Dalton Career Development Professorship advances the participation and success of women in the natural and basic medical sciences.
• The Isabel Anderson Career Development Professorship supports the scholarship of a faculty member in the Questrom School of Business.
• The Ralph Edwards Career Development Professorship supports rising faculty in the School of Medicine.
• The East Asia Studies Career Development Professorship, supported by a BU alumnus based in Taiwan, recognizes assistant professors in the College of Arts & Sciences, the Pardee School of Global Studies, the College of Communication, the College of Fine Arts, and the Questrom School of Business whose research is specific to East Asia, particularly China and Taiwan.

This year’s Career Development Professorship recipients have been recognized for their extraordinary accomplishments in their areas of study, their passion for the creation and transmission of new knowledge, their efforts to enhance the student experience, and their potential to develop into outstanding faculty members. I am delighted to announce that this year’s Career Development Professors are:

Peter Paul Career Development Professorship

Jean-Pierre Roussarie
Assistant Professor of Anatomy & Neurobiology, School of Medicine
Jean-Pierre Roussarie studies the molecular mechanisms that lead to early stages of Alzheimer’s Disease – specifically a vulnerable cell type in the entorhinal cortex – using cutting-edge genomics methods to identify novel therapeutic targets for disease-modifying drugs. He received his PhD and master’s in virology at the Pasteur Institute and his bachelor’s in engineering at École Polytechnique, both in Paris. He completed his postdoctoral training at Rockefeller University in New York.

Moorman-Simon Interdisciplinary Career Development Professorship

Ngozi Okidegbe
Associate Professor of Law, School of Law
Assistant Professor of Computing & Data Sciences, Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences
Ngozi Okidegbe’s research bridges legal scholarship and data science, examining how the use of predictive technologies (like algorithms) in the criminal justice system for pre-trial detention, bail, and sentencing determinations adversely impacts racially marginalized communities. She holds law degrees from Columbia Law School and McGill School of Law and a bachelor’s in history from Concordia University in Montreal.

Erica Pratt
Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering
Erica Pratt combines engineering, chemical biology, and oncology with the emerging field of liquid biopsy to develop novel, minimally invasive methods for detecting, characterizing, and ultimately treating multiple forms of cancer. She earned her PhD and master’s in biomedical engineering from Cornell University and her bachelor’s in mechanical and biomedical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. She completed her postdoctoral training at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

Christine Slaughter
Assistant Professor of Political Science, College of Arts & Sciences
Christine Slaughter examines African American political participation in the United States utilizing approaches from political science, psychology, and public health to better understand how economic inequality, gender, and resilience influence the frequency and substance of black political engagement and behavior. She received her PhD and master’s in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles and her bachelor’s in political science and comparative women’s studies from Spelman College.

Cecile Kaplan Dalton Career Development Professorship

Heidi Meyer
Assistant Professor of Psychological & Brain Sciences, College of Arts & Sciences
Heidi Meyer uses novel behavioral and neurobiological techniques to better understand the mechanisms underpinning the regulation of emotions – specifically, how early life experiences shape distinctive features of the adult brain and impact the expression of fear or safety-related behaviors. She holds a PhD in psychological and brain sciences from Dartmouth College and a bachelor’s in neuroscience from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She completed her postdoctoral training at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York.

Isabel Anderson Career Development Professorship

Tesary Lin
Assistant Professor of Marketing, Questrom School of Business
Tesary Lin is a quantitative marketing scholar who uses data science and digital analytics tools to study how consumers value privacy and whether their valuation is affected by how firms may use the data they collect. She received her PhD in quantitative marketing from the University of Chicago and holds a master’s in economics from Tsinghua University and a bachelor’s in economics from Nankai University, both in China.

Ralph Edwards Career Development Professorship

Daniel Dempsey
Assistant Professor of Dermatology, School of Medicine
Daniel Dempsey employs a variety of approaches (including chemical, semi-synthetic, biophysical, and cellular) to investigate the properties and regulation of proteins involved in cell signaling, epigenetics, and gene regulation – research with potential to produce new therapies for the treatment of cancer. He holds a PhD in chemistry/biochemistry from the University of South Florida, and a master’s and bachelor’s in chemistry from the State University of New York at Oswego. He completed his postdoctoral training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

East Asia Studies Career Development Professorship

Rui Hua
Assistant Professor of History, College of Arts & Sciences
A historian of modern China and Japan, Rui Hua studies the origins of the modern legal system in 20^th century China, focusing on the role of peasants and migrants in the codification of rules, rights, and regulations, with particular emphasis on debates over land use and property rights. He holds a PhD and master’s in history and East Asian languages from Harvard University, a master’s in history from the University of British Columbia, and a bachelor’s in history from Peking University.

Please join me in congratulating these talented junior faculty for their achievements and in wishing them continued success in their teaching and research at Boston University in the years ahead.

2022-2023 Career Development Professorship Awardees – 9.26.22

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