Category: Research
BU Data Platform Will Help Massachusetts Track, and Work to Close, Wage Gaps
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts selected Boston University to develop a data platform that will underpin new wage equity legislation in hopes of closing the Massachusetts wage gap. To help in the creation of aggregate wage reports, a group of researchers within the Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences has developed an encrypted program that anonymizes demographic and salary information as well as enables anyone to query the database to see high-level trends.
Renowned Virologist Robert A. Davey to Lead NEIDL, BU’s Infectious Diseases Research Hub
Internationally renowned virologist Robert Davey has been named interim director of Boston University’s National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL). Davey is a BU Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine professor of virology, immunology, and microbiology. Davey says his priorities as interim director are to sustain NEIDL’s momentum, help it navigate new challenges in the research landscape, and strengthen its leadership in high-impact science and public health preparedness.
NIH Awards $15M to BU-Led Effort to Diagnose CTE During Life
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded $15 million to a major study led by Boston University CTE Center researchers. This new study will focus on examining potential biomarkers to help doctors accurately diagnose CTE—chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a neurodegenerative disease—in living patients. Among those volunteering for the study is the retired National Football League quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, who first played at Boston College and went on to an 18-year NFL career.
Pulmonologist Darrell Kotton Is BU’s Innovator of the Year
Darrell Kotton, a physician, scientist, and founding director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine at Boston University and Boston Medical Center, has been named Innovator of the Year for his work in pioneering lung disease treatments with stem cell technology and accelerating scientific discovery with open-access resources. Kotton is the David C. Seldin Professor of Medicine at the Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine.
BU Launches Open-Source Infectious Diseases Monitoring Tool Powered by AI and Human Experts
Boston University researchers and collaborators at Boston Children’s Hospital are launching a new AI-powered platform to monitor and analyze infectious diseases threats around the world. This tool—called the Biothreats Emergence, Analysis and Communications Network (BEACON)—is slated to become a global hub for critical information about emerging outbreaks.
Guggenheim Fellowships Awarded to Six BU Researchers and Scholars
Six BU researchers and scholars have received Guggenheim Fellowships. BU’s 2025 Guggenheim Fellows include artist Lynne Allen, writer and scholar Louis Chude-Sokei, astronomer Merav Opher, physicist Anders W. Sandvik, historian Bruce J. Schulman, and historian Quinn Slobodian. Given annually by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the awards program supports exceptional mid-career individuals with a proven record of excellence and the potential to achieve more.
BU Ramps Up Strategy on AI
Boston University is creating the Artificial Intelligence Development Accelerator for Academic and Administrative Excellence, an initiative designed to coalesce the long-standing and widespread investment in AI at BU. Informed by the findings of two interdisciplinary task forces that investigated the matter, the initiative will foster collaboration across BU. Faculty and staff can share best practices, coordinating the University’s adaptation of AI as a tool to make BU more innovative, efficient, and creative.
BU’s Kenneth Lutchen Named AAAS Fellow
Kenneth Lutchen, Boston University’s senior advisor to the president for strategy and innovation, has been named an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow. Lutchen is a scholar in respiratory mechanics, an innovative leader in higher education, and dean emeritus and professor of biomedical engineering at the College of Engineering. The world’s largest general scientific society, AAAS annually confers this honor in recognition of those with careers filled with scientific and socially distinguished achievements.
Success! BU Telescope Lands on the Moon Aboard NASA’s Blue Ghost Mission 1
In a historic first for the University, the BU-developed LEXI (Lunar Environment heliospheric X-ray Imager) telescope is operating from the lunar surface and will image Earth’s magnetic shield. The X-ray emission data LEXI captures will advance our understanding of the relationship between Earth’s magnetic field and the sun’s solar wind. The telescope is attached to NASA’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 spacecraft, which blasted off from Florida on January 15, 2025 and touched down on March 2, 2025.
Four BU Researchers Win National Honor for Early-Career Scientists and Engineers
Boston University faculty Elizabeth Bettini, Wen Li, Michelle Sander, and Zeba Wunderlich each received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. The BU professors’ work includes research in special education, lasers, genes and DNA, and space plasma physics and magnetospheres. There have been just eight previous BU presidential award winners since the accolade was founded nearly 30 years ago.
