Overview
The William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professorship was established in 2008 to recognize Boston University’s most distinguished faculty. Named in honor of BU’s first president, the award is the highest distinction bestowed upon senior faculty members who remain actively involved in research, scholarship, teaching, and the University’s civic life. Nominations for this award are traditionally due each October, with honorees selected and announced by the University President the following year.
William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professors
Azer Bestavros (2017)
Associate Provost, Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences, and Professor of Computer Science, College of Arts & Sciences
Azer Bestavros is BU’s inaugural Associate Provost for Computing & Data Sciences and previously served as Founding Director of the Hariri Institute for Computing. His research in networking, distributed computing, cybersecurity, and high-assurance systems has produced seminal contributions, including pioneering web push caching through content distribution networks, the development of game-theoretic cloud resource management, and safety certification of networked software systems. His work has led to multiple patents, a successful start-up, and over $25 million in external funding. He has chaired several boards and initiatives, including the IEEE Technical Committee on the Internet, the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center, the BU Council on Educational Technology & Learning Innovation, and the BU Data Science Initiative. His teaching and research have earned numerous distinctions, most notably ACM Sigmetrics’ inaugural Test of Time Award for research “whose impact is still felt 15 years after initial publication” and BU’s 2010 United Methodist Scholar/Teacher of the Year Award.
David A. Boas (2026)
Professor of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering
David A. Boas is an internationally recognized expert in biomedical optics and a pioneer in the emerging field of neurophotonics, which utilizes advances in photonics to further our understanding of the brain. He joined BU from the radiology department at Massachusetts General Hospital, where his research led to breakthrough optical methods to study cerebral physiology and pathophysiology with a particular focus on brain function, oxygen delivery, and consumption. Boas has published more than 200 papers, is the founding president of the Society for Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy, and the founding editor in chief of Neurophotonics. He is leveraging BU’s wealth of expertise in photonics, biomedical engineering, and neuroscience to further accelerate neurophotonic technologies.
Christopher S. Chen (2019)
Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Materials Science & Engineering, College of Engineering
Christopher S. Chen is Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Materials Science & Engineering and Director of Boston University’s Tissue Microfabrication Laboratory. He has been an instrumental figure in the development of cellular therapies, tissue engineering, and 3D printing, providing leadership at the interface between engineering, biology, and medicine. Dr. Chen has made seminal contributions in understanding how cellular organization, mechanics, and their environment control cell function. His over 200 publications have been cited collectively more than 44,000 times. He has received numerous honors, including the Biomedical Engineering Society’s 2019 Robert A. Pritzker Distinguished Lecture Award (the group’s highest honor), and serves as a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.
Ji-Xen Cheng (2026)
Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Electrical & Computer Engineering, College of Engineering
Ji-Xen Cheng leads research that focuses on harnessing intrinsic molecular signatures for label-free imaging, molecules based diagnosis and drug-free treatment. Cheng is authored in 360 peer-reviewed publications and has been awarded funding from federal agencies including National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, Department of Defense, Department of Education and private foundations including Chan-Zuckerburg Initiative and Keck Foundation. In 2014, Cheng co-founded Vibronix Inc which is devoted to vibration-based imaging technologies and medical device innovations. In 2019, Cheng co-founded Pulsethera aiming to kill superbugs by photolysis of intrinsic chromophores. In addition, Cheng is the Scientific Advisor of Photothermal Spectroscopy Corp in Santa Barbara and of Axorus in Paris. Commercial chemical microscopes based on his innovations (e.g., mIRage by Photothermal Spec Corp) are installed and used in many countries worldwide. Cheng is a Fellow of National Academy of Inventors.
Lindsay A. Farrer (2026)
Professor of Genetics & Biomedical Genetics, Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, and Professor of Medicine, Neurology, Ophthalmology, Epidemiology, & Biostatistics, School of Public Health
Lindsay A. Farrer is a graduate of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, received his PhD from the Indiana University School of Medicine, and gained additional training in genetic epidemiology at Yale University. He holds adjunct faculty positions at Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, and the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Bedford, Massachusetts. He is a Founding Fellow of the American College of Medical Genetics. Dr. Farrer teaches several courses in human genetics and addiction science at Boston University; directs the BU Transformative Training Program in Addiction Science (TTPAS), featuring transdisciplinary training for students enrolled in PhD programs across the Medical and Charles River Campuses; and directs Boston University’s Molecular Genetics Core Facility, which offers DNA genotyping and sequencing services to investigators at Boston University and elsewhere, and provides genetic counseling and testing to patients with a variety of inherited conditions.
Catherine E. Costello (2013)
Professor of Biochemistry & Cell Biology, Chobanian & Avedisan School of Medicine
Catherine Costello came to Boston University in 1994. That year she established the Center for Biomedical Mass Spectrometry, which has become an internationally recognized research center. She holds her primary appointment in the MED Biochemistry Department, with secondary appointments in the Department of Physiology & Biophysics and the Department of Chemistry. Her research, which focuses on determining the structures and functions of biologically important polymers, has revolutionized an important area of biochemistry by providing insights into the structures of molecules responsible for human disease. She is the author or co-author of more than 300 scientific papers, serves on a number of editorial boards of major journals, and has received numerous awards and honors, including the 2010 Field and Franklin Award from the American Chemical Society, one of the highest honors in her field.
Mark Grinstaff (2022)
Professor of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, and Professor of Chemistry, College of Arts & Sciences
Mark Grinstaff is a Professor of Translational Research, Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry, Materials Science and Engineering, and Medicine, as well as the Director of the NIH T32 Program in Biomaterials and the Director of the Nanotechnology Innovation Center at Boston University. His research activities encompass the synthesis of new macromolecules and biomaterials, self-assembly chemistry, imaging contrast agents, drug delivery, and wound repair. His eponymous research group conducts interdisciplinary research in the areas of biological and macromolecular chemistry. Professor Grinstaff is a fellow of the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES), the winner of the 2018 Clemson Award for Applied Research from the Society of Biomaterials, and recipient of the 2015 Charles DeLisi Award among many others. He is the author or coauthor on more than 225 peer-reviewed manuscripts.
Michael E. Hasselmo (2019)
Professor of Psychological & Brain Sciences, College of Arts & Sciences,
Michael E. Hasselmo is Professor of Psychological & Brain Sciences and Director of the Center for Systems Neuroscience. His research takes an interdisciplinary approach to the nature of memory and brain processes, from systems neuroscience and biochemistry to cognition and behavior. His research focuses on the physiological mechanisms of spatial navigation and memory function; he has explored important elements of the mechanisms of episodic memory, including examination of the mechanism for the coding of space and time in episodic memory by grid cells in the brain. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed journal articles, and his book How We Remember: Brain Mechanisms of Episodic Memory was published by MIT Press in 2012. He serves on the editorial boards of Science, Hippocampus, and Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, among others. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and received the 2015 Hebb Award from the International Neural Network Society.
Keith N. Hylton (2013)
Professor of Law, School of Law
Keith Hylton has been a member of the LAW faculty since 1995, and previously was a tenured professor at Northwestern University School of Law. He is a prolific scholar who is widely recognized for his work across a broad spectrum of topics in law and economics, including labor law, tort law, antitrust, intellectual property, civil procedure, and empirical legal analysis. He has published four books and nearly 100 articles in numerous law journals, and serves as a contributing editor of the Antitrust Law Journal, co-editor of Competition Policy International and editor of the Social Science Research Network’s Torts, Products Liability and Insurance Law Abstracts. He has held a number of leadership positions in various legal organizations, and on campus he is highly respected for his dedication to teaching and advising.
Ed Kearns (2026)
Professor of Physics, College of Arts & Sciences
Ed Kearns is an expert in neutrino physics and particle astrophysics at the College of Arts & Sciences. Dr. Kearns conducts studies of atmospheric neutrinos with Super-K, where he investigates the unknown parameters of neutrino oscillation such as CP violation and mass ordering. His involvement in the discovery of neutrino oscillation using atmospheric neutrinos was recognized in 2015 with the Nobel Prize in Physics. His honors and awards also include the W.K.H. Panofsky Prize from the American Physical Society, the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, and a fellowship from the American Physical Society.
Nancy Kopell (2009)
Professor of Mathematics & Statistics, College of Arts & Sciences, and Professor of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering
Nancy Kopell is co-founder and co-director of the Center for BioDynamics at the College of Engineering and co-director of the Center for Computational Neuroscience and Neural Technology (CompNet). She joined the BU Mathematics faculty in 1986 and has applied her knowledge of nonlinear dynamics to fundamental problems in biology, chemistry, and neuroscience, helping to develop mathematical biology into a fertile and well-recognized field of research. She organized and today directs the Cognitive Rhythms Collaborative (CRC), a group of more than 25 labs working on brain dynamics and their cognitive implications. An honorary member of the London Mathematical Society, she has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences and to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has been named a Guggenheim fellow and an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow, and in 1990 received a MacArthur Foundation “Genius Award.”
Laurence Kotlikoff (2009)
Professor of Economics, College of Arts & Sciences
Laurence Kotlikoff joined the Department of Economics at BU in 1984. He is a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a fellow of the Econometric Society. A former senior economist with the President’s Council of Economic Advisors from 1981 to 1982, he is one of higher education’s top experts in deficits, generational accounting, tax structure, public health finance and personal finance, among a host of issues. He is the author or coauthor of 16 books and hundreds of journal articles and has been a consultant to numerous corporations and government authorities around the world, including the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Office of Management and Budget, Merrill Lynch, AT&T and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Ann McKee (2019)
Professor of Neurology and Pathology, Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine
Ann McKee is Professor of Neurology and Pathology & Laboratory Medicine at the BU School of Medicine, Director of the BU Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) Center, and Associate Director of the BU Alzheimer’s Disease Center. She serves as Director of Neuropathology for the VA Boston Healthcare System and Chief Neuropathologist for the National VA ALS Brain Bank. Dr. McKee was the first scientist to report a link between motor neuron disease and CTE, and her research has been critical in establishing the clinical and pathological spectrum of trauma-induced neurodegenerative disease. Much of her current research is focused on mild traumatic brain injury from contact sports and military service and its long-term consequences. She has also written widely on many neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, Lewy body disease, and Parkinson’s disease, and has received the Henry Wisniewski Lifetime Achievement Award in Alzheimer’s Research from the Alzheimer’s Association. She was named Bostonian of the Year in 2017 and one of TIME Magazine‘s 100 Most Influential People in 2018 and is a member of the National Academy of Medicine.
Dana Robert (2022)
Professor of World Christianity and Mission, School of Theology
Dana L. Robert joined the faculty of Boston University in 1984. Widely-known as a founder of the field of World Christianity, Robert has mentored over 85 doctoral students who hold ecclesiastical and academic positions around the world. Her research and teaching interests include mission history, World Christianity, and missiology, and she has published extensively on these subjects. In 2001, Professor Robert launched the Center for Global Christianity and Mission. The Center hosts the oldest digital humanities projects at Boston University, including the award-winning Dictionary of African Christian Biography. Robert is an editor of the journal Church History and she serves on numerous editorial boards. In 2016–2017 she held a Henry Luce III Fellowship in Theology and was also Senior Fellow at the Leibniz Institute of European History in Mainz, Germany. In 2017 she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Missiology. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
Xin Zhang (2026)
Professor of Engineering, College of Engineering
Xin Zhang leads the Laboratory for Microsystems Technology at Boston University, where she conducts pioneering research in metamaterials and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS or microsystems). Her recent work spans three distinct research themes, namely metamaterials and microsystems: 1. with tunable and nonlinear responses for photonic and optical applications; 2. for clinical medical imaging technologies; and 3. for acoustic silencing and noise reduction. Dr. Zhang has published more than 200 journal papers and her honors include election as an ASME Honorary Member, the Guggenheim Fellowship, the ASME Per Bruel Gold Medal, the Sigma Xi Walston Chubb Award for Innovation, the ASME Thomas A. Edison Patent Award, the IEEE EMBS Technical Achievement Award, the ASME Robert Henry Thurston Lecture Award, and the IEEE Sensors Council Technical Achievement Award.
Past William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professors
George J. Annas (2009)
Professor of Health Law, Bioethics & Human Rights,School of Public Health
George Annas was Chair of the Department of Health Law, Bioethics & Human Rights in the Boston University School of Public Health, and Professor in the Boston University School of Medicine, and School of Law. A member of the BU faculty since 1972, and an internationally renowned expert on patient rights, he was the cofounder of Global Lawyers and Physicians, a transnational professional association of lawyers and physicians working together to promote human rights and health. He was the author or editor of 16 books on health law and bioethics and was a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, co-chair of the American Bar Association’s Committee on Health Rights and Bioethics, and a member of the Committee on Human Rights of the National Academies.
*Professor Annas passed away while an active William Fairfield Warren Professor in good standing. He therefore was not eligible for emeritus status (See the Faculty Handbook).
Bonnie Costello (2017), Professor Emerita (2018)
Professor of English, College of Arts and Sciences
Bonnie Costello is a professor of English in the College of Arts and Sciences with a focus on modern and contemporary poetry. Her work delves into visual thinking and intersections between literature and visual arts. Professor Costello’s books on Marianne Moore (1981) and Elizabeth Bishop (1991) were among the first full critical studies of these poets and her edition of The Selected Letters of Marianne Moore opened up a new window into the history of modernism. Other poets she has often written about include: Wallace Stevens, Robert Frost, W.H. Auden, John Ashbery, Charles Wright, A. R. Ammons, Amy Clampitt and Jorie Graham. In Professor Costello’s recent books, she explored landscape and environmental poetry (Shifting Ground [2003]), and the interplay of private and public spheres in still life motifs (Planets on Tables [2008]). Her newest book, The Plural of Us: Poetry and Community in Auden and Others, was published by Princeton in 2017. Besides teaching introductory courses and surveys in modern and contemporary poetry, she has offered seminars on a variety of subjects–theories of modern lyric, poetry and the environment, modern poetry and the visual arts, poets and their letters, modernist poetics and the social pressures of the 30s.
Wendy Gordon (2011), Professor Emerita (2022)
Professor of Legal Instruction, School of Law
Wendy Gordon has taught at the School of Law since 1993. Her work emphasizes that our legal environment must cultivate the exchange of ideas, expression and information for everyone – not only established players in various industries. Renowned for her application of philosophy and economics to copyright and related common-law areas and for her work on fair use, she has published on four continents, received numerous honors and grants and speaks to audiences all over the world. She has been a Fulbright scholar and a visiting senior research fellow at Oxford University and is a recipient of the New Jersey Governor’s Fellowship in the Humanities. Three U.S. Supreme Court opinions cite her scholarship, and Japan’s University of Hokkaido has taught a seminar devoted to her work.
Ha Jin (2019), Professor Emeritus (2026)
Professor of English, College of Arts & Sciences
A 1994 graduate of Boston University’s Creative Writing Program, Xuefei Jin (pen name Ha Jin) returned to the Department of English in 2002 as a full professor. Born in China, he was a teenager when China entered the Cultural Revolution and he became a member of the People’s Liberation Army at the age of 14, an experience he would later revisit in his written work. He was studying in the United States at the time of the Tiananmen Square demonstrations and suppression and realized at that time that he would be unable to return to China. His work examines themes of exile, immigration, and the now ever-present global experience of movement among cultures; his course “The Writer as Exile” is a key element of the international focus of the University’s Creative Writing Program. His novel Waiting, based on his experiences in the Red Army, was awarded the National Book Award for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award and was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize (as was his novel War Trash in 2005). His newest books are A Distant Center (2018) and his first nonfiction book, The Banished Immortal: A Life of Li Bai (2019). His work has been translated into more than 30 languages. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Robert Pinsky (2015): Professor Emeritus (2025)
Professor of English and Creative Writing, College of Arts & Sciences
Robert Pinsky is Professor of English in the College of Arts & Sciences and teaches creative writing in the CAS’s Creative Writing MFA program. He joined the BU faculty in 1988. The nation’s Poet Laureate from 1997 to 2000, Professor Pinsky created the widely recognized Favorite Poem Project to document, promote, and celebrate poetry’s place in American culture. His poetry collections have won a host of national and international prizes, including the Los Angeles Times Book Award, the William Carlos Williams Prize, Theodore Roethke Prize, and the Howard Morton Landon Translation Prize for his best-selling translation of The Inferno of Dante. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Professor Pinsky currently serves as poetry editor for Slate magazine.
H. Eugene Stanley (2011); Professor Emeritus (2021)
Professor of Physics, College of Arts & Sciences
Gene Stanley joined the BU Physics faculty in 1976. An internationally-renowned statistical physicist, his research attempts to understand puzzles of interdisciplinary science, from the study of water’s structure and the onset of Alzheimer’s disease, to common statistical patterns governing disparate phenomena, such as the distribution of stock price fluctuations and the speeds of air molecules. His numerous books and articles have received nearly 40,000 citations, and he is an elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and the American Physical Society, which awarded him the Nicholson Medal for Human Outreach in 2003. A recipient of the “Distinguished Teaching Scholar” Director’s Award from the National Science Foundation and the Massachusetts Professor of the Year award from Council for Advancement and Support of Education, he has been thesis advisor to nearly 100 PhD candidates throughout his career.