Category: Leaders
Board of Trustees Welcomes New Members
Boston University’s Board of Trustees and the University Advisory Board have both added new members to their ranks. The Board of Trustees added six members and elected two members as Trustee Emeriti. The University Advisory Board added two new members and elected a new chair.
Melissa Gilliam Inaugurated as 11th President
Boston University celebrated Melissa Gilliam’s inauguration as the institution’s 11th president. President Gilliam addressed more than 2,000 students, faculty, staff, and dignitaries at Agganis Arena. The ceremony featured remarks via video from Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey as well as welcoming remarks from BU trustees, faculty, staff, and alumni.
Penny Bishop Appointed New Dean of BU Wheelock College of Education & Human Development
Penny Bishop, a leading adolescent development scholar, has been appointed as the new dean of Wheelock. Bishop, who was dean of the University of Maine College of Education and Human Development since June 2021, officially assumed her role at BU on August 1, 2024.
Melissa L. Gilliam, Boston University’s Eleventh President
Dr. Melissa L. Gilliam, a distinguished educator, scholar, research scientist, and physician, took office on July 1, 2024, as Boston University’s eleventh president. A national leader in faculty recruitment and student success and a champion of diversity and inclusion, Dr. Gilliam is also a professor of obstetrics and gynecology and of pediatrics.
President-Elect Melissa Gilliam Names New Provost, Fills Key Senior Staff Posts
President-Elect Melissa Gilliam has named three critical appointments to her leadership team. Gloria Waters will become the University’s provost and chief academic officer, Christopher Sedore will direct Information Services & Technology, and Christine Wynne will become chief of staff to the president.
Ethicist and Theologian Named MLK Professor of Religion & Black Studies
Emilie Townes, dean emerita of Vanderbilt’s Divinity School, will become STH’s new Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor of Religion & Black Studies effective July 1. According to STH, the professorship honors King (GRS’55, Hon.59) “by modeling the moral authority, prophetic vision of justice, peace, and love, ethical leadership, and global consciousness that he advocated for and embodied.” Townes’ scholarship delves into womanist and Black theology, as well as racial health disparities and environmental racism.
The Winners of the 2024 Metcalf Awards, BU’s Top Teaching Honors
Yuri Corrigan, a College of Arts & Sciences associate professor of Russian and comparative literature, has earned this year’s Metcalf Cup and Prize, the University’s highest teaching award. He was honored at the 2024 Commencement ceremony on May 19 alongside two other faculty members—Veronika Wirtz, a School of Public Health professor of global health, and Alexis Peri, a CAS associate professor of history—the recipients of this year’s Metcalf Awards for Excellence in Teaching.
Created in 1973, the Metcalf Cup and Prize and the Metcalf Awards for Excellence in Teaching are a gift from the late Arthur G. B. Metcalf (Wheelock’35, Hon.’74), a BU Board of Trustees chair emeritus and a former professor. The program gives $10,000 to the Cup and Prize winner and $5,000 each to the Metcalf Award winners. A University committee selects winners based on statements of the nominees’ teaching philosophy, supporting letters from colleagues and students, and classroom observations of the nominees.
BU Innovator Pioneers Devices in Astronomy, Microscopy
The director of the University’s cross-disciplinary Photonics Center, Thomas Bifano, is the 14th winner of the Innovator of the Year award, given to an “outstanding faculty member who has translated world-class research into an invention or innovation that benefits humankind.” A holder of 10 patents, Bifano is also chief technology officer of Boston Micromachines Corporation, a company he cofounded to develop and market deformable mirrors and other optics products.
As head of the Photonics Center—which is a hub for the study of light and development of technologies utilizing it—Bifano has helped many others nurture their own innovations. The center is home to 70 faculty research labs and the Business Innovation Center, which hosts tech, biotech, manufacturing, and medical devices start-ups and corporations.
Two BU Faculty Honored with Outstanding Teaching Awards
Professors Bobak Nazer and Fallou Ngom have each been honored with outstanding teaching awards.
Bobak Nazer, a College of Engineering associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and associate department chair for undergraduate programs, is being honored with the 2024 Gerald and Deanne Gitner Family Award for Innovation in Teaching with Technology. The award recognizes the faculty member or team that best exemplifies innovation in teaching by use, development, or adaptation of technology. It celebrates innovation that results in positive learning outcomes for undergraduate students and that is recognized or adopted by faculty colleagues within or outside BU. The award comes with a $10,000 stipend. Nazer was mainly recognized for transforming a course into 50 short videos containing animations with narrated explanations, which the student would watch before a lecture. This enabled lectures to guide further discussion and leave time for activities and games.
Fallou Ngom, a College of Arts & Sciences anthropology professor, won the Provost’s Scholar-Teacher of the Year Award—an honor that recognizes scholars who excel as teachers inside and outside the classroom and who contribute to the art and science of teaching and learning. Ngom’s research has helped to uncover an ancient writing system used by communities in West Africa. One of Ngom’s achievements was altering his sociolinguistics class, which relied heavily upon European languages (Dutch, French, Portuguese), to address a class who studied and spoke various African languages. This enabled the students to apply the complex sociolinguistic theories to languages that were familiar to them.
Three BU Researchers Elected AAAS Fellows
Being named an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow puts scholars in distinguished company—and a trio of Boston University researchers have just been selected for the honor.
Electrical and computer engineer Siddharth Ramachandran, physicist Bradley Lee Roberts, and biologist Daniel Segrè have been named AAAS Fellows for extraordinary contributions to their respective fields; they’ll be recognized at a special event later this year. The world’s largest scientific society, AAAS has elected fellows since 1874; this year marks the program’s 150th anniversary. During that time, more than 110 BU scholars have been selected for the award.
