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06/30/2026 | News release | Distributed by Public on 07/01/2026 10:09

Meet the 38 Charles River Campus Faculty Promoted to Ranks of Associate Professor, Full Professor

Meet the 38 Charles River Campus Faculty Promoted to Ranks of Associate Professor, Full Professor

Faculty represent 10 schools and colleges

University News

Meet the 38 Charles River Campus Faculty Promoted to Ranks of Associate Professor, Full Professor

Faculty represent 10 schools and colleges

June 30, 2026
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One is a scholar of African diaspora religions who has played a pivotal role in the development of the study of religion in digital contexts. Another conducts research in machine learning. Another is a behavioral scientist whose research examines self-control in consumer decision-making. They are among the 38 faculty on Boston University's Charles River Campus recently promoted to the rank of full professor or associate professor.

In a letter sent to faculty on June 25 announcing the promotions, outgoing Provost and Chief Academic Officer Gloria Waters wrote: "At the heart of great universities are outstanding faculty who advance our understanding of the world through their scholarship, improve the quality of life through their research, and prepare new generations for success and leadership through their teaching," adding that each of the 38 faculty recognized by these promotions are leaders in their chosen fields, "demonstrating daily the caliber of education and accomplishment possible through innovation, creativity, and commitment to student success."

Faculty promoted to the rank of full professor

College of Arts & Sciences

Ross Barrett (GRS'09), professor of history of art & architecture, specializes in 18th- to early 20th-century American art, with particular emphasis on the intersections of visual culture, economics, and the environment. An award-winning teacher and dedicated advisor, he is widely recognized for fostering engaging, inclusive classrooms that inspire students across disciplines. He has made a significant impact on the field through his work with emerging scholars, guiding numerous PhD and master's degree students who have gone on to successful careers in academia and museums. Barrett's scholarship, including the acclaimed monograph Speculative Landscapes: American Art and Real Estate in the Nineteenth Century (2022), combines close visual analysis with rich historical research to explore how art reflects and critiques broader social forces. A leader in the field, he has published extensively in major journals, cofounded the influential journal Panorama, and contributes actively to national scholarly organizations, shaping the future of American art history.

Peter Buston, professor of biology, is a marine biologist, behavioral ecologist, and population biologist specializing in the evolution of cooperation and conflict in animal societies. Since establishing his lab at BU in 2010, he has focused primarily on tropical fishes, examining cooperation and conflict in animal social behavior, as well as dispersal and its consequences for population structure and dynamics in the marine environment-both of which represent long-standing questions of broad interest. Through his integration of theory and empirical data, he has made fundamental contributions to the understanding of proximate mechanisms and ultimate explanations for various dimensions of the behavior, physiology, ecology, and population biology of anemone, fish, and other marine organisms.

Cati Connell, professor of sociology, is director of undergraduate studies for sociology and a scholar of the sociology of gender and sexualities whose research contributes to the interdisciplinary field of gender and sexuality studies. She is the author of two books, School's Out: Gay and Lesbian Teachers in the Classroom (University of California Press, 2015) and A Few Good Gays: The Gendered Compromises of Military Inclusion (University of California Press, 2023). The latter won the Outstanding Book Award, Division of Sexual Behavior, Politics, and Communities, from the Society for the Study of Social Problems. In addition, she has published numerous articles in leading journals, such as Signs, Sexualities, and Social Problems. Across these publications, she has established her reputation as a prominent scholar of gender, sexuality, and key social institutions by illustrating the power of theoretically informed empirical research.

Anne Short Gianotti, professor of earth & environment, is a human-environment geographer whose research examines the sociopolitical and ecological dynamics of urban and suburban environmental governance. Supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Foundation for Animal Care and Education, she is recognized for her contributions in three overlapping areas: the politics of wildlife management and conservation, the justice and finance politics of urban climate action, and urban biodiversity futures. She has published 33 scholarly articles in top geography, ecology, and interdisciplinary journals and currently serves as lead on the Urban Biodiversity Futures research network. By tracking the roles of finance, institutional interests, and ecology, her work builds a critical understanding of how and why environmental decisions, conflicts, and policies unfold across diverse landscapes.

Margarita Guillory, professor of religion and African American and Black diaspora studies, is a scholar of African diaspora religions who has played a pivotal role in the development of the study of religion in digital contexts. She is the author of two books, including her latest, Africana Religion in the Digital Age (2025). Her other writings-including an authoritative overview of "New Religious Movements and the Internet" in the Oxford Handbook of Digital Religion, her Luce Foundation-funded project "Database of African American Religious Experience in the United States (DARE-US)," and her edition of a special volume of The Black Scholar on "Black Religions in the Digital Age"-have put Boston University at the forefront of research in an emerging digital humanities field whose impact is growing exponentially. She has published 12 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters and serves on the editorial board of six major scholarly journals, including the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, the discipline's flagship journal.

Angela Ho, professor of biology, is a neuroscientist whose research focuses on the cellular and molecular mechanisms that drive brain development and neurodegenerative disorders. Since establishing her lab at BU in 2008, She has made significant contributions to understanding brain development and Alzheimer's disease, especially in the area of molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying brain development and neurodegenerative disorders. Her work is central to our understanding of nervous system function and to identifying promising new therapeutics for Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases.

College of Engineering

Chuanhua Duan, professor of mechanical engineering, investigates transport phenomena at the nanoscale, with applications spanning biosensing, semiconductor manufacturing, water purification, and energy systems. His research in nanofluidics and micro/nanoscale phase-change heat and mass transfer has yielded pioneering contributions with significant implications in his field. Supported by approximately $3 million in funding from the NSF, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and industry partners, he has published 40 peer-reviewed journal articles in outlets including Nature Nanotechnology, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and Nano Letters. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and a recipient of the NSF CAREER Award, the DARPA Young Faculty Award, the American Chemical SocietyPetroleum Research Fund New Investigator and New Directions Awards, and the Prominent Research Award at the 2024 Micro Flow and Interfacial Phenomena Conference.

Brian Kulis, professor of electrical & computer engineering, conducts research in machine learning, with a focus on scalable algorithms for large-scale data analysis, optimization, and representation learning. His work has advanced methods in clustering, similarity learning, and deep learning, with applications spanning computer vision, audio, and high-performance computing systems. He is a recipient of the NSF CAREER Award and has received multiple best paper awards at leading machine learning conferences. His research is supported by federal agencies and industry partners, and he serves in leadership roles for top venues such as NeurIPS, ICML, and the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence.

Emily Ryan, professor of mechanical engineering, is an engineering professor and Duan Family Faculty Fellow in Computing & Data Sciences who uses computational modeling and data science to tackle some of today's most pressing energy challenges. Her work centers on computational modeling of energy systems and targets challenges across a range of application domains, including advanced battery technologies, carbon capture, porous materials design, and machine learning for clean energy planning. She leads a research program with over $10 million in funding from the NSF, Department of Energy, and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and she has published in top journals including the Journal of Power Sources, Nano Letters, and ACS Energy Letters. A two-time Scialog Fellow-in both Advanced Energy Storage and Negative Emission Sciences-and recipient of the R&D 100 Award, she also serves as associate director of BU's Institute for Global Sustainability and has been named a BU Initiative on Cities Public Impact Scholar.

Michelle Sander, professor of electrical & computer engineering, develops advanced photonic technologies for imaging, sensing, and neuromodulation. Her research focuses on ultrafast fiber lasers and mid-infrared photothermal imaging, enabling label-free characterization of biological systems and new approaches to studying and modulating neural activity. She is a recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers and an NSF CAREER Award, and she was recently named an Optica Fellow. Her work has resulted in a substantial body of publications and invited presentations and is supported by major federal funding agencies.

Kamal Sen, professor of biomedical engineering, studies how neurons in the brain encode complex natural sounds. His research focuses on the neural substrates of selectivity for different categories of natural sounds and seeks to determine if these substrates are innate or shaped by learning. His laboratory investigates these questions with a focus on the auditory cortex. He is supported by numerous grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and NSF, and he also serves as the Master's Chair for the College of Engineering's biomedical engineering department. He has received many notable awards, including the NSF NCS-FRONTIERS Award, the William Demant Foundation Award, and a Discovery Award from the American Hearing Research Foundation. Most recently, his research has been featured by BU's The Brink and the American Hearing Research Foundation. He has published 96 articles in top-tier biomedical journals and continues to be a vibrant and active member of the biomedical community.

Metropolitan College

Lubomir (Lou) Chitkushev (ENG'96), professor of computer science, is an internationally recognized expert in biomedical and health informatics, cybersecurity, and network modeling. He is a founding member of the Recursive Inter-Network Architecture group, founding director of New England's first accredited graduate program in health informatics, and cofounder of the Center for Reliable Information Systems & Cyber Security, a major contributor to the University's designation as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense and Research by the National Security Agency (NSA) and Department of Homeland Security. He is also an international Fulbright Specialist and has served as principal investigator on multiple interdisciplinary projects in cybersecurity and informatics. He has authored over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles and conference papers and secured 15 awarded grants totaling more than $13 million from organizations including the NSF, NSA, US Department of Justice, and European Commission.

Canan Gunes Corlu, professor of administrative science, is an acclaimed scholar in operations management and analytics. Her research spans simulation optimization, uncertainty modeling, and data-driven decision-making, with impactful applications in supply chains, transportation, and emerging digital systems. Her work has been published in leading journals and conference proceedings across operations research and management science, addressing critical challenges such as supply chain resilience, stochastic optimization, and sustainable transportation systems. She has also contributed influential scholarship on digital transformation and advanced analytics, including ongoing research on generative AI, digital twins, and the modeling of complex and illicit supply networks. Her research is distinguished not only by its methodological rigor but also by its strong real-world relevance, bridging theory and practice through collaborations with industry and interdisciplinary partners.

Questrom School of Business

Rena M. Conti, professor of markets, public policy & law, is a leading scholar of the life sciences and biopharmaceutical industry whose research examines competition, pricing, and innovation incentives in prescription drug markets. Her work has advanced our understanding of drug shortages, pharmacy benefit managers, gene therapy, and alternative payment models for pharmaceuticals, bringing economic analysis to some of the most consequential questions in the business of health. A Dean's Research Scholar and recipient of Questrom's Broderick Award for Excellence in Research, she has testified before Congress, advised the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and served as lead economist on Louisiana's landmark subscription model for hepatitis C treatment. Her research has been published in leading outlets in economics, business, and medicine, including Management Science, Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Health Affairs, JAMA, and New England Journal of Medicine.

Dokyun (DK) Lee, professor of information systems, specializes in the development, deployment, and impact of artificial intelligence in business and society, with a particular emphasis on generative AI, large language models (LLMs), and the economics of unstructured data. His recent research examines the responsible use of LLMs in social science, the role of generative AI in human creativity and the labor market, AI policies, and the use of machine learning to map competitive landscapes. He is a recipient of the Information Systems Society's Gordon B. Davis Young Scholar Award and Sandra A. Slaughter Award, and the Marketing Science Institute's Young Scholar Award. A recognized leader in data science, he has published extensively in premier journals such as Management Science, Information Systems Research, MIS Quarterly, Journal of Marketing Science, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Science Advances, as well as at top AI conferences.

Remi Trudel, professor of marketing, is a behavioral scientist whose research examines self-control in consumer decision-making, focusing on why individuals often struggle to act in line with their long-term goals and how those gaps can be reduced. His scholarship spans sustainable consumption, consumer financial decision-making, and health behavior, and he is internationally recognized as a leading expert on sustainable consumer behavior. His research has advanced academic understanding in the field and informed organizational and policy interventions, shaping how firms and policymakers design programs to encourage more sustainable choices. At Questrom, he currently serves as faculty director of the PhD Program, where he has played a central role in strengthening doctoral training, recruitment, and placement, including chairing five doctoral dissertations with strong tenure-track placement outcomes. He is a recipient of multiple teaching and mentoring awards and contributes extensively to the profession through editorial leadership at top journals and service to major academic conferences.

Gerry Tsoukalas, professor of information systems, specializes in digital platforms, artificial intelligence, and analytics, focusing on how emerging technologies impact firm operating strategy and financing. His research explores the design and management of blockchain and fintech platforms, as well as human-AI collaboration and machine learning applications in business. Recently named to the Thinkers50 Radar Class of 2025, he is cofounder of the Crypto and Blockchain Economics Research Forum and serves as an associate editor for Management Science, Operations Research, and Manufacturing & Service Operations Management (M&SOM). An award-winning educator and researcher, he has published extensively in premier business journals and holds fellowships with the Wharton School of Business and the Luohan Academy.

School of Law

Madison Condon, professor of law, is an expert on climate change, financial risk, and regulation. Her scholarship has been included in collections of the best articles of the year for several fields, including environmental law, corporate law, and securities law. Her research on these topics is published in leading law journals, and she frequently contributes to public conversation. In 2025, the American Law Institute named her a recipient of its Early Career Scholars Medal. She also serves on the United Nations Principles of Responsible Investment Academic Network Advisory Committee.

Ngozi Okidegbe, professor of law, focuses on the areas of law and technology, evidence, criminal procedure, and racial justice. Her work examines how the use of predictive technologies in the criminal legal system impacts racially marginalized communities. Her articles have been published in leading law journals. She is a faculty associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, an affiliated fellow at the Information Society Project at Yale Law School, and holds a joint appointment at BU's Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences. She also serves on the advisory board for the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

Weijia Rao, professor of law, researches international and comparative law, with a focus on legal institutions governing global trade and investment. Using empirical methods, her recent work examines the intersection of businesses, geopolitics, and international institutions. She has written over 13 scholarly articles that have been published or are forthcoming in leading law journals such as the American Law and Economics Review, Journal of Law and Economics, and Journal of Legal Studies. She serves on the editorial board of the Journal of International Economic Law and is a vice-chair of the American Society of International Law's international economic law interest group.

School of Social Work

Christina S. Lee, professor of clinical practice, studies how to improve substance use treatment by aligning care with community needs. Her NIH-funded research expands brief interventions by addressing substance use as a response to stigma, discrimination, and trauma in communities of color, demonstrating that addressing stigma and trauma-related coping mechanisms reduces substance use outcomes. Her book, Motivational Interviewing Across Cultures, won first place in the American Journal of Nursing Book of the Year Awards (2025). She is an elected fellow of the American Psychological Association and recipient of the Dora Goldstein Distinguished in the Sciences Award, which recognizes excellence and creativity in alcohol research and a sustained commitment to diversity and mentoring. She serves on multiple editorial boards in leading journals such as the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology and is a senior editor at the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. She is on the Board of the National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers and is a volunteer clinician at Casa Esperanza in Boston.

Wheelock College of Education & Human Development

Joshua Goodman, professor of educational leadership & policy studies, is a leading scholar in the economics of education whose research has significantly advanced understanding of postsecondary access and success, STEM course-taking and persistence, and the wide-ranging impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on students and schools. His work is widely published in top economics and education journals and has shaped both academic discourse and policy conversations. Beyond his research, he is an outstanding teacher and generous colleague who has played a central role in strengthening education policy as a core area of excellence within the college. His influence extends directly into policymaking, including a year-long leave serving with the White House Council of Economic Advisers, where he contributed economic analysis to inform national education policy.

Anthony Jack, professor of educational leadership & policy studies, is a leading scholar of higher education whose work has reshaped our understanding of inequality among lower-income undergraduates by highlighting often-overlooked differences in their pre-college experiences. His award-winning book, The Privileged Poor, has become foundational in the field and has a substantial impact on public policy discussions. His recent book, Class Dismissed, further illustrates that colleges and universities remain insufficiently prepared to support the diverse student populations they seek to serve. Across his scholarship, he has illuminated the structural and cultural barriers faced by disadvantaged students, including within the most selective institutions. In addition to his research, he serves as the inaugural faculty director of the Newbury Center, the University's hub for supporting first-generation college students.

Nathan Jones, professor of teaching & learning, is an affiliated faculty member with the Wheelock Educational Policy Center, a founding member of the BU Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences, and previously served as commissioner of the Institute of Education Sciences' (IES) National Center for Special Education Research. His research focuses on the intersection of education policy and classroom teaching as well as teacher education, teacher effectiveness, staffing models, and whether students with disabilities are supported by well-prepared teachers, both in general education and special education. His research has been supported through grants from the NSF, IES, William T. Grant Foundation, and Spencer Foundation, and has appeared in leading journals in special education, education policy, and measurement, including the Journal of Human Resources, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Educational Researcher, AERA Open, Exceptional Children, Remedial and Special Education, and Educational Assessment.

Faculty promoted to the rank of associate professor with tenure

College of Arts & Sciences

Mark Bun, associate professor of computer science, conducts research in theoretical computer science with a focus on data privacy, computational complexity, cryptography, and the foundations of machine learning. His work develops mathematical and algorithmic tools for privacy-preserving data analysis, helping establish fundamental limits and capabilities of computation and learning. Supported by a NSF CAREER Award and recognized with a 2022 Sloan Research Fellowship, he has emerged as a leading scholar in the theory of differential privacy and related areas. He has published extensively in premier theoretical computer science conferences and journals, advancing the mathematical foundations of privacy, learning, and computation. His research has earned broad recognition within the theoretical computer science community, and he has held research appointments at leading institutes, including the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing.

James Feigenbaum, associate professor of economics, is an interdisciplinary scholar who has made important contributions to our understanding of labor markets in historical context, race in the post-Civil War South, political representation and selection, and historical health disparities. His pioneering work on historical record linking has already made him a household name in economic history and beyond. His research has been published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Review of Economic Studies, Journal of Economic History, Journal of Politics, and many other academic journals. He is a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

JJ Hermes, associate professor of astronomy, uses observations of white dwarf stars (stellar remnants that represent the final state of nearly all stars in the Milky Way) to explore a wide range of fundamental problems in astrophysics. These compact objects serve as natural laboratories for studying planetary systems, stellar interiors, binary evolution, and high-energy phenomena. His work, particularly programs associated with the Hubble Space Telescope and the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, has been supported by the NSF and NASA. He served as his department's director of graduate admissions for four cycles. In addition, he organizes Tertulia, the CAS Junior Faculty Colloquium. He has published several book chapters and numerous refereed articles in leading scientific journals, including Nature and the Astrophysical Journal.

Benjamin Marx, associate professor of economics, is a broad and versatile researcher with a research agenda touching on some of the most fundamental questions at the intersection of political economy and development, such as the interplay between electoral competition and economic growth, the evolution of electoral politics in young democracies, and the role of religion in the process of development. His research has been published in the American Economic Review, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Review of Economic Studies, Journal of Politics, and many other academic journals. He is a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Yi Grace Ji, associate professor of mass communication, advertising & public relations, examines how organizations and emerging technologies shape stakeholder engagement and public responses to sociopolitical issues. Her work focuses on CEO activism, corporate purpose-driven communication, and generative AI in digital communication, often using computational approaches with large-scale data. She has published extensively in high-impact communication and business journals, authoring 27 journal articles, 13 book chapters, and two books. She has also delivered more than 50 conference presentations at national and international conferences. She has received more than ten top paper and research awards from leading communication associations and conferences, and her research has been supported by internal and external grants supporting research on responsible communication, technology, and social impact.

College of Engineering

Michael Albro, associate professor of mechanical engineering, investigates the growth factor biology underlying cartilage degeneration and repair, integrating mechanobiology, tissue engineering, and optical diagnostics to develop new treatments and diagnostic tools for osteoarthritis and musculoskeletal disease. A hallmark of his work is the development of Raman spectroscopic needle probes that can non-destructively map cartilage composition in vivo, a breakthrough that has been published in Nature Communications, Nature Reviews Rheumatology, Biomaterials, and ACS Central Science, among other leading journals. Backed by two concurrent NIH R01 awards and an NSF CAREER Award, and recognized with the Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation's Dr. James R. Neff Research Award, he has established himself as a leader at the interface of orthopaedic science and biomedical engineering.

Wei-Lun (Harry) Chao, associate professor of electrical & computer engineering, conducts research in machine learning and computer vision, with a central focus on learning from imperfect data,-including limited, noisy, heterogeneous, and distribution-shifting data common in real-world settings. His work advances federated learning for privacy-preserving decentralized AI, robust 3D perception for autonomous driving, and imageomics, an emerging interdisciplinary field that applies vision and machine learning to accelerate biological discovery, as well as AI-assisted medical image analysis. His research is supported by the NSF, NIH, Office of Naval Research, and industry partners including CISCO and Honda, and he serves in leadership roles for top venues in his field, such as the Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS) and the International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML).

Hadi Nia, associate professor of biomedical engineering, directs a research lab focused on combining the principles of engineering with molecular biology to answer key questions in normal lung physiology and under disease conditions, such as cancer and infection. His highly successful research program is supported by numerous grants from the NIH and BU's Office of Research's Kilachand Fund. He provides service to the University in multiple areas, including serving on the PhD Admissions Committee in the Biomedical Engineering Department. He has received numerous awards, including the 2025 Cellular Molecular Bioengineering Rising Star Award, 2025 Hevolution-AFAR New Investigator Award in Aging Biology & Geroscience, 2024 Department of Defense Idea Award, and 2024 Sloan Research Fellowship. He has published 138 articles in top-tier biomedical journals and continues to be an active member of the biomedical community.

Tommaso Ranzani, associate professor of mechanical engineering, focuses on the design and manufacturing of soft, bioinspired robotic systems that can navigate the body's most complex environments to perform minimally invasive surgical, cardiac, and rehabilitative procedures. His Morphable Biorobotics Lab has produced landmark work-including a soft robotic catheter for beating-heart surgery featured on the cover of Science Advances and spotlighted by Nature and the NIH-with publications spanning Nature Communications Engineering, Advanced Materials, IEEE Transactions on Robotics, and leading robotics conferences. He holds three patents, has attracted more than $4 million in research funding from the NIH and Office of Naval Research, and is a recipient of the NIH Trailblazer Award for New and Early Stage Investigators.

Pardee School of Global Studies

Shamiran Mako, associate professor of international relations, focuses on ethnic politics, democratization, foreign intervention, and post-conflict state building in the Middle East and North Africa. She has conducted extensive fieldwork in challenging conditions in Iraq and has held a Fulbright Fellowship in Canada. She is the author of Structuring Exclusion: Institutions, Grievances, and Ethnic State Capture in Iraq (Oxford University Press, 2026) and co-author of After the Arab Uprisings: Progress and Stagnation in the Middle East and North Africa (Cambridge University Press, 2021). Trained as a political scientist, she teaches courses on politics in the modern Middle East and ethnic conflict.

Faculty promote to the rank of associate professor, non-tenure track

College of Communication

Deborah Danielpour, associate professor of film & television, is a screenwriter, fiction writer, and scholar whose work examines narrative, identity, and authorship across film, television, literature, and performance. Her creative portfolio spans feature screenplays, television projects, fiction, stage works, librettos, and critical essays, reflecting a sustained commitment to storytelling across multiple forms. Her scholarship has contributed to the growing field of screenwriting studies through publications on screenwriting pedagogy, adaptation, serialized storytelling, and visual authorship. She teaches undergraduate and graduate screenwriting, mentors MFA thesis writers, and directs the department's Cinematheque series, a program that connects students and faculty with leading professionals working throughout the film and television industries. Through her combined contributions as an artist, scholar, and educator, she has played a significant role in advancing the department's mission of creative excellence and professional preparation.

College of Fine Arts

James Grady, associate professor of art, graphic design, School of Visual Arts, has established a distinctive national profile through a body of creative research and professional practice that advances the intersection of graphic design, emerging technologies, interdisciplinary collaboration, and public engagement. Through his design studio, funded interdisciplinary research initiatives, and leadership of the BU Spark! Technology Innovation Fellowship, he has produced innovative work in UI/UX design, data visualization, motion graphics, interactive media, and creative coding that has received national recognition from organizations including Fast Company, Graphic Design USA, and the American Digital Design Awards. His interdisciplinary research explores how design can foster collaboration across fields while making complex systems and information more accessible, dynamic, and socially impactful.

Rob Patterson, associate professor of clarinet, School of Music, is an accomplished clarinetist who has received national attention as a performing artist and teacher. He maintains active performing engagements with major organizations across the United States and has created well-respected clarinet pedagogy resources, including written publications as well as the creation and administration of The Clarinet Sessions-a ten-week online program open to clarinetists of all ages, backgrounds, and skills, featuring seminars and lectures by guest artists from around the world. His professional profile includes national and international masterclasses, guest artist performances, lecture presentations and clinics, and world premieres of commissioned solo works.

Gareth Dylan Smith, associate professor of music, music education, School of Music, has made significant and multifaceted contributions to the field of music education research, particularly focusing on popular music education, the sociocultural dimensions of music learning, and drum kit pedagogy. His creative output encompasses academic books, peer-reviewed journal articles, edited volumes, and practitioner-oriented publications. His work supports educators in adopting innovative and authentic music teaching methods, particularly in drum kit and popular music instruction. He has a robust and sustained record of professional service marked by leadership roles in multiple international music education organizations, extensive peer review contributions for prominent publishers and journals, and active conference organization.

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