Did You Hear the One About the Engineer Who Rebuilt BU?
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By Art Jahnke IN HIS FIRST FIVE YEARS, BU PRESIDENT ROBERT A. BROWN HAS MADE THE FUTURE PART OF EVERYBODY’S JOB Did you hear the one about the engineer who rebuilt BU? Winter–Spring 2011 BOSTONIA 27 222-512-51 BBostoniaWinter11_03.inddostoniaWinter11_03.indd 2727 22/4/11/4/11 22:36:36 PPMM “I MADE THE TRANSITION FROM COMPLICATED PHYSICAL SYSTEMS Five and a half years into Brown’s tenure, BU At last year’s Matriculation, he urged students to learn has seen four years of record surpluses and has quantitative reasoning and how to write clearly. increased financial aid to students. here were two to begin the job. By the time to pop up anytime, anywhere, have also set new records: things Robert Brown a new presidential search like targets in a Whack-A- prior to Brown’s presidency, promised himself he committee started talking to Mole game. the University had had only T would not get caught Brown in spring 2005, many “There were dead cats one gift of more than $10 mil- up in when he was consider- observers of higher educa- everywhere,” Brown recalls. lion. Since he took office, six ing taking the job of president tion were not looking at Bos- “And nobody wanted to bury large gifts account for more of Boston University. “One ton University as a model of them.” than $60 million. was what the Globe had writ- executive leadership. Ultimately, he says, he In September, the many ten about the University and The second item on dealt with the complexity by positive changes that Brown John Silber,” says Brown. “The Brown’s short list of things following Albert Einstein’s has brought to BU were of- other was trying to under- to steer clear of presented a famous advice to physicists: ficially recognized when the stand the place before I had curious personal anomaly. “Things should be made as Board of Trustees expressed to commit. It was too compli- Because while most leaders simple as possible, but not the hope that he would con- cated for that.” of billion-dollar enterprises simpler.” tinue doing what he had been The first item, Brown want to avoid complexity, It worked. Today, five and doing for another five years. knew, was a requirement for Brown, a provost and former a half years into Brown’s ten- Brown said yes. anyone hoping to shepherd chemical engineer and applied ure, the University has seen BU into the 21st century. mathematician at MIT, is in four years of record surplus- FIRST MOVES Silber (Hon.’95), the Univer- love with it. An organization es, money that has made it As Einstein might have rec- sity’s president from 1971 to with 17 schools and colleges, possible to put $172 million ommended, Brown acted as 1996 and later chancellor, had 32,000 students, more than into building new dorms quickly as possible, but not been a walking lightning rod 8,600 employees, and a bud- and renovating old ones, and quicker. Just three months for the Globe, and seemed to get of $1.7 billion offered an $100 million into moderniz- after occupying the eighth- revel in the philosophical irresistible opportunity for ing classrooms and labs. The floor corner office that looks clashes with the press and analysis and synergies. University has increased across the Charles River at the political opponents, not to “I have always enjoyed financial aid to students by institute where he worked for mention his faculty. And dealing with the complex- $32.8 million, bringing the 25 years, he asked the heads when Silber stepped out of ity,” says Brown. “I made the total allocated to financial aid of all departments to create a firing range, the Board of transition from complicated to $277.4 million annually. 15-page document describing Trustees stepped in and gave physical systems to the com- And his commitment to re- the state of their department the press something else to plexity of the academic orga- search and his efforts to build and where they wanted to take potshots at: in 2003, the nization.” an infrastructure to support go. And when those reports board paid former NASA di- At BU, however, there was that research helped increase arrived, he told his deans to rector Daniel Goldin, whom more than physical complex- sponsored program awards boil them down to a single they had signed on as presi- ity to deal with. There were by 33 percent from the time 15-page document for each dent, $1.8 million to walk politics, and the shards of of his arrival, to $407.8 mil- school. The goal, a new one for away just before he was set unresolved issues were likely lion in 2010. Alumni gifts BU, was to create a democrati- WEB EXTRA Highlights from President Robert A. Brown’s five years at BU are at bu.edu/bostonia. 222-512-51 BBostoniaWinter11_03.inddostoniaWinter11_03.indd 2828 22/6/11/6/11 111:301:30 AMAM TO THE COMPLEXITY OF THE ACADEMIC ORGANIZATION,” SAYS BROWN. Brown meets with parents at a post-Matriculation reception. From his eighth-floor office, the president can look across the Charles River to his former home at MIT. cally crafted roadmap to the the University community THE BROWN BIO: SHORT FORM future: a strategic plan. to comment on. Brown asked Julie Sandell, Faculty for feedback, and he got lots of Before he was appointed president of Council chair from 2006 to it, including several concerns Boston University in September 2005, 2008, says Brown’s first major about the speed at which he Robert A. Brown was provost and War- move accomplished two im- was pushing ahead. ren K. Lewis Professor of Chemical portant things. It yielded the “I knew it was going to Engineering at the Massachusetts Insti- outlines of a useful strategic be hard,” he says. “But I also tute of Technology. He joined the MIT plan, and “it showed that this knew that if you don’t start faculty in 1979. In 25 years at MIT, he was going to be a new era of moving forward, you spend was head of the department of chemi- cooperative efforts.” so much time wringing your cal engineering and dean of the School “Dr. Brown realized very hands over the past. You have of Engineering. He became provost in quickly that a plan that grows to tweak or manage the pro- 1998. He served as executive editor from the bottom up serves a cess as it goes. You had to fix of the Journal of Chemical Engineer- number of purposes,” says it as it moved.” ing Science from 1991 to 2004 and has publishedblished more Sandell, a School of Medicine In September 2007, Brown than 250 papers in areas related to mathematical modeling professor of anatomy and unveiled Forging Our Future of transport phenomena in materials. He is a member of the neurobiology and associate by Choosing To Be Great (bu National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engi- provost for faculty develop- .edu/strategicreport). The neering, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. ment. “It would engage the plan was unabashedly am- A Texan by birth, Brown earned a BS and an MS in chemical faculty in thinking in a for- bitious. It outlined ways to engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. He received a ward-looking way about how make it easier for students PhD in chemical engineering at the University of Minnesota. to take BU to the next step. enrolled in one college to He has been a director of the DuPont Company since April It was a novel idea, that the study in another; it called for 2007 and most recently, he was appointed a trustee of the faculty would have a collec- improvements to dorms and Universities Research Association. From 2006 through 2008 tive responsibility in deter- classrooms and for the re- he served on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science mining the direction of the cruitment of 100 new faculty and Technology, a panel established to provide a steady institution. It was more of for the College of Arts & Sci- stream of expert advice on a wide range of scientific and tech- a partnership than many fac- ences. Several of the profes- nical matters. He is chair of the Academic Research Council of ulty had experienced.” sional schools were targeted the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Singapore, and he In December 2006, 15 for growth. The School of is on the board of Singapore’s National Research Foundation. months after Brown came Management was slated to Brown lives in Brookline, Mass., with his wife, Beverly to BU, his strategic planning hire 20 new faculty, the School Brown, director of development—an unpaid position—for task force delivered a 33-page of Law would begin a capital BU’s Center for Global Health & Development. They have two framework for the plan. It was campaign for an expanded and grown sons. AJ posted on the BU website for fully renovated facility, with all to read and for anyone in a dollar-for-dollar match in PHOTOGRAPHS BY BU PHOTOGRAPHY Winter–Spring 2011 BOSTONIA 29 222-512-51 BBostoniaWinter11_03.inddostoniaWinter11_03.indd 2929 22/5/11/5/11 22:45:45 PPMM “BROWN HAD CARTE BLANCHE FROM THE BOARD TO REPLACE ANYONE In September, the trustees expressed the hope that Dropping the puck at the Terrier hockey Brown would stay on for another five years. He said yes. home opener, in 2005. funding from the University, ing of our financial operat- residence for students at the from previous administra- and the College of Fine Arts ing model.” School of Medicine.