research at Boston University 2012 Connections

kyle allison Teaming up with sugar mitchell zuckoff to battle bacteria. Seeking out true stories that are better than fiction.

merav opher Tracking Voyager and rethinking the shape of the solar system.

Tapping into our innovators Meet some of BU’s outstanding researchers. darrell kotton Conquering lung cancer one stem cell at a time. jim collins cultivating breakthroughs in synthetic biology. CONnections the research magazine of boston University Q & A with the Vice President ^ and associate provost for research

Contents 2012 partnerships highlight our strengths and allow ties, is a testament to the quality of our faculty us to reach beyond what we could accomplish and students, to BU’s rapid ascent as one of on our own. the major urban research universities, and to President Brown’s extraordinary leadership. You have changed the format of some Membership in the AAU is not only enhancing of the stories in the current Research at the visibility and reputation of our institution Boston University. Why? but it allows us to participate in high-level AER: An important focus of our office is conversations on all aspects of research and strengthening the “connections” across our education in American universities and gives us research community and bringing the out- an important voice in shaping federal policies standing research and scholarly work of this and practices that will help determine the future institution from our classrooms and laborato- of higher education. ries to the public at large. We often approach The MGHPCC, meanwhile, is a 10 MW 8 teaching in a linear way, building on a hier- computational facility built through a ground- archy of concepts, each of which might have breaking collaboration between BU, Harvard, taken decades to establish. In the same way, MIT, Northeastern, UMass, the Common- previous issues of Research at BU have sought wealth, and two industrial partners: Cisco and to highlight the scholarly work of our talented EMC. The MGHPCC represents a state-of-the- faculty and students by concentrating on the art “green” computational facility indispensable exciting results and the implications of their in the increasingly data-rich environment that research. But acquiring knowledge through is reshaping the way we communicate and learning or research is as much about the innovate across academia and all other sec- final result—understanding an idea explained tors of society. Beyond partnering to build this in a scholarly or research publication—as it extraordinary facility, the university consortium is about the complex process of discovery: a has also been successfully collaborating on Q: How has the position of Vice President roller coaster full of false starts, dead ends, research and other infrastructure projects, and Associate Provost for Research evolved and “aha” moments of euphoria. dispelling the perception that the Boston area over the last five years? I believe that giving students and the public is missing the “collaboration gene.” Without a AER: As the first to serve in this position a window into the excitement and impor- doubt, these collaborations will raise the profile 20 24 14 at BU, I have spent much of the last five tance of research and scholarship is about of each of our institutions and will enhance the years assessing the extraordinary research documenting and exploiting the tortuous but reputation of the Commonwealth as one of the capabilities of this institution, identifying the exhilarating journey of discovery, not merely world’s preeminent innovation hubs. challenges we face, and shaping this office about the destination of this journey. Provid- Dialogues Departments around four key responsibilities: promot- ing a vivid account of the research process on What is next for Boston University as a ing research and scholarship at the highest a printed page of Research at BU is a demand- major research university? 8  Adventures in History 2 Paper Trails 34 Pioneering Global Health level to increase our competitiveness for all ing task. In this issue, we decided to replace AER: Like our peers, we are working to man- Mitchell Zuckoff converses about his WWII The Whole Score and Nothing The Challenge of Childhood sources of funding; implementing policies some of our traditional, linear storytelling age increasing pressures on research funding plane crash survival tale, Lost in Shangri-La. but the Score Pneumonia that support research and ensure compli- with conversations with researchers in an due to the uncertainties in the federal budget. body of Poems education and Service in Ecuador ance with federal regulations; overseeing the interview format—a vehicle we feel more We must turn these challenges into oppor- 14  Reshaping the Solar System The Other Side of the Story unraveling the Mysteries of administrative units supporting all our schol- compellingly chronicles the actual research tunities: for example, by becoming more Merav Opher discusses space physics, the edge a Public Health Emergency arly activities; and representing our research process and its endpoint. I hope you will find aggressive and strategic in applying for grants of the universe, and women in science. 4 Considering Community a Toolkit for Success enterprise outside the University. this experiment worthwhile and fun to read. and contracts, by exploring new funding Market Research Leading the Way Boston University’s research enterprise— mechanisms, and by forging strategic part- 20 Opening the Doors to smart Parking like that of so many other institutions—is What have been, in your opinion, BU’s nerships inside and outside the institution. I Open Source Medicine setting the Stage for evolving in response to the innovative environ- proudest research accomplishments over am convinced that with vision and discipline coming Home Public Health Darrell Kotton talks about pulmonary medicine, ment in which we work and to the increasing the last five years? we will continue BU’s upward trajectory stem cells, and building a lab to conduct research Turning Green into Green standards and changing needs and priorities AER: There is a great deal of impactful, among major research universities. 38 Snapshots his own way. of the institution. Important forces in this important work performed at BU each day in Be sure that, as we speak, there are students 7 Research Recognized 42 Award-Winning Faculty evolution are the shifting pressures on many areas of scholarship. Two major suc- and members of our faculty and collaborators 24 Persistent Beginnings research funding and the uncertainties in the cesses that perhaps speak more broadly to in labs, studios, and classrooms contemplating 30 Ground-Truthing federal budget. This has motivated us to be the strengths and reputation of the University a new cure to a currently incurable disease; Jim Collins and Kyle Allison chat about combating Climate Change antibiotic-resistant bacteria with sugar. more aggressive in competing for grants and as a whole are our recent induction into the creating a groundbreaking new work of art, Tracking Winter’s Decline contracts and to develop new strategies and Association of American Universities (AAU) music, or literature; uncovering a previously climate’s Smoking Gun alternative models of funding research. Dur- and the recent opening of the Massachusetts unforeseen phenomenon; or arriving at new No Doubt about Drought ing the past year, we have begun working to Green High Performance Computing Center solutions that will change the way we think On the Cover: about the world and help to make it better for strengthen our ties with industry and cultivate (MGHPCC) in Holyoke. Kyle Allison, Mitchell Zuckoff, Darrell Kotton, Jim Collins, and strategic relationships and collaborations The distinction of joining the AAU, an elite future generations. Stay tuned! Merav Opher. outside our institutional boundaries. These organization of 62 leading research universi- — Andrei E. Ruckenstein

www.bu.edu/research 1 Lorca’s lost draft of “Office and Denunciation,” discovered in a Library of Congress archive, Paper Trails shows a departure from the version published in Poet in New York. By cassandra nelson

tell a story different from what Ngom appreciates as Africans’ own “version of the other side what happened and how they see them- of the story selves, their worldview, and how they have coped with globalization.” from music, to poetry, to ancient African “hidden in plain Because Ajami is a living script, it has Body of sight” among the The Rosetta Stone modern-day applications as well—in a manuscripts, Boston University researchers are interested in the poems papers of musi- unlocked Egyptian surprising number of fields. Two of Ngom’s ways in which today’s audiences engage historical texts. They cologist Hans Moldenhauer. hieroglyphs in one fell students are combining this particularly Hidden in the The manuscript is revealing on several swoop, but there are complex branch of the humanities with their are driven by a passion for discovery, as well as for clarification, pages of books, the levels, says Maurer. The most dramatic no such shortcuts for studies in public health, looking for ways to so that contemporary readers and musicians can enjoy great suitcases of exiles, departure in terms of content comes near Ajami, a form of modified Arabic script “Ajamize” contemporary medical literature or in a barn: These the end of the poem, in a line Lorca struck that has been used for centuries to com- and peer-reviewed treatment regimens into works as their authors intended. When it comes to manuscripts are just a few of through: “I offer myself to be devoured by mit otherwise oral African languages to language and concepts that can be under- that have been lost, misinterpreted, or undeciphered, these three the places where the manuscripts of Spanish peasants” as an “example to Span- the page. stood by, say, elderly malaria patients in a faculty demonstrate that there’s plenty of work to be done—if you Federico García Lorca ended up in the ish children.” In the published version, this rural African village. Much more material years after his 1936 assassination, at a line becomes, “I offer myself as food for the t takes several skills to read Ajami,” awaits future scholars of anthropology, com- know where to look. time when the Spanish Civil War raged cows wrung dry when their bellowing fills says Fallou Ngom, associate profes- parative religion, and literature. and it was dangerous to be found in the valley where the Hudson gets drunk “I sor of anthropology and director of “I think we owe that to students in the possession of works by a leftist poet. on oil.” There can be no doubt that Lorca the African Language Program. “First, you twenty-first century,” says Ngom, “to teach It wasn’t until decades later that they rejected the earlier, more violent, and obvi- need an understanding of classical Arabic them how not to be consumers of pre- Ruske explains, but watering down the made their way into the hands of ously sacrificial image, says Maurer: “He script, and second, an understanding of the established knowledge that perpetuates music only sets up young horn players for scholars. crossed that out, very clearly. But in light of sound systems, the linguistic systems of the misunderstanding, but instead to lay the The whole confusion later. “It’s completely wrong, all that happened between 1930 and August relevant African languages. Third, you have ground for deeper understanding between score and because if you ever tried to perform it with he construction of Lorca’s 1936, and his subsequent reputation in to know about the local culture,” in order people and societies.” > nothing but an orchestra, it absolutely wouldn’t work.” complete works in the 1970s Spain as a martyred poet, it’s really power- to make sense of the content of documents the score So Ruske set about providing what all “ and 1980s mirrors Spain’s ful to see him writing that.” written in Ajami, which often draw on READ THE Full STORY T go.bu.edu/research/trails students of the horn, from beginners to pro- coming to grips with its own past during In his course, Lives, Letters, and indigenous traditions and worldviews. To mark the one fessionals, desperately needed: a complete that time,” says Professor of Spanish Archives, Maurer is kindling a fascination It’s a daunting task, but the potential pay- hundredth anniver- set of the Mozart Horn Concerti, faithful Christopher Maurer, who recently with archives in a new generation. The off is vast. Numerous Ajami manuscripts sary of Mozart’s to the original manuscripts, with minimal authored a book with Andrew Anderson course involves both a hands-on archival await translation, and they cover an aston- birth, in 1856 his son Karl Thomas cut editorializing. His edition was published by on Lorca’s time in New York and Cuba project making use of special collections ishing number of subjects, ranging from up one of his late father’s manuscripts Cimarron Music Press last year. from 1929 to 1930, forthcoming in April at BU and Harvard, and an exploration of Islam and shopkeeping to snakebite cures and distributed the pieces to friends A certain amount of experimenta- from Galaxia Gutenberg (Barcelona). “It related ethical issues ranging from privacy, and the benefits of drinking coffee. “You as “Mozart mementos.” And that, it tion—and fun, he adds—is in keeping with was an important part of the national ownership, and gender to human rights, find everything,” says Ngom, who received turns out, was only the start of the the spirit of the concerti. In Mozart’s day, reconciliation, with real symbolic a controversial but essential aspect of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2011 for his trouble for the Mozart Horn Concerti. the horn was a much less sophisticated value—a gathering in of his writings archives in countries that have inherited work promoting Ajami. “Some of the things instrument than it is now, so the concerti and a bringing home.” terrifyingly detailed records from former, even make me laugh. But this is normal, this t wasn’t until 1997 that the pieces are a lighthearted affair. Though they’ve One manuscript, only recently discov- oppressive regimes. is what comes up” naturally in a record of were reassembled and reunited with since become a crucial part of horn ered by Maurer, took a longer time and a Maurer isn’t discouraged by the fact that human life. I another part of the score, long ­missing, players’ oeuvre, they were originally more circuitous route than most. “One other Lorca manuscripts remain undis- More than 5,000 Ajami manuscripts after it surfaced at auction. By then, a composed for a close family friend, not to night I was plunking at the computer covered and that some will likely never be have already been scanned and stored number of partial or otherwise inaccurate secure a place in musical history. and scouring different archives for Lorca found. “Ultimately, all archives are collec- online in the African Ajami Library, an versions of the concerti were in circulation— “He dedicated all of the concerti to his materials, and I saw this manuscript at tions of fragments,” he says. “That’s another open access digital repository created by looking not quite like Mozart had intended. friend Joseph Leutgeb, and the original the Library of Congress,” he recalls. thing I love about them. Manuscripts are an BU and the West African Research Center, “I’ve had students bring in editions that manuscripts are accordingly filled with “I thought, this can’t be.” image of our own frail, fragmented nature. with funding from the British Library. were everything from just slightly objec- bawdy jokes and asides,” says Ruske. “It’s A trip to Washington, D.C., confirmed Every life is a fragment. And yet we have to What’s at stake in making this collec- tionable to horrendous, including abridged a great reminder of the fact that while we that the manuscript was indeed Lorca’s, go forward. We have to reason out from the tion accessible and intelligible to a wide versions, and concerti in incorrect keys,” tend to place Mozart on a pedestal, or in and allowed Maurer to unravel “the fragment to the whole. Ex ungue leonem: we audience is no less than a rewriting of key says Eric Ruske, an acclaimed horn soloist a crystal case like a museum piece, this is whole fascinating little mystery” of how have to infer a lion from a claw.” parts of African history. For years Ajami and professor of music in BU’s College of living, breathing music.” a handwritten first draft of “Office and manuscripts were dismissed as “unread- Fine Arts. “The first concerto was written Denunciation”—one of the central poems READ THE Full STORY able Arabic,” says Ngom, with scholars Thousands of Ajami manuscripts across a wide READ THE Full STORY go.bu.edu/research/trails in D major, and I’ve had students bring in of Lorca’s collection Poet in New York— relying instead on archival materials from range of disciplines wait to be translated and printed music in the key of E-flat.” Such go.bu.edu/research/trails had changed hands multiple times and colonial sources. But external accounts— studied by contemporary scholars. changes make the piece easier to play, traveled thousands of miles, to end up once the only evidence of the past—often

2 Research at Boston University 2012 www.bu.edu/research 3 BU drivers may soon be Considering Community using an app to make parking reservations. By james o’brien

whatever I could get involved with,” the subject. Part of it, including a chapter alternatives when it comes to parking What do a gastronomist, an engineer, a financial Black says. “From the culinary perspective, by Black, examines vineyard production near a particular location. What do a gastronomist, an engineer, a financial markets are connecting consumers and technology from a theoretical point Smart He and his team recently created a researcher, and an ethnographer­ have in com- with producers.” of view. Parking demo of the prototype system at a BU researcher, and an ethnographer­ have in common? The effects of that connection, and She is also on the cusp of new research parking garage on Commonwealth mon? the backstory of the Turin site that some in Italy, looking into the economically For Professor Avenue. Next steps involve working with Answer: all of them are applying their individual skills to say is the oldest of its kind in Western troubled wine region of Carema. Farm- Christos Cassandras, companies that are exploring wireless Europe, are among the subjects of Porta ers there are struggling with the financial it was an elevator parking applications, and with cities and parsing the systems that shape communities across the globe. Answer: all of them are applying their individual skills to pars- Palazzo: The Anthropology of an Italian changes that swept Europe during the that set him on the towns that might be interested in building From Italian open-air markets and better strategies for parking Market, published in 2012 by the Univer- first decade of the 2000s. course to his current such a network. ing the systems that are shaping community across the globe. and energy use in American cities, to the social effects of gentri­ sity of Pennsylvania Press. Now, Black Black is an assistant professor and coor- work with sensors. “It fits this broader vision of a smart From Italian open-air markets and better strategies for parking is returning to the world of growers and dinator of the Department of Gastronomy, city,” Cassandras says. “Imagine sensors fication, these four Boston University researchers are engaged in and energy use in American cities, to the social effects of gentri- producers—this time to focus on grapes. started in the 1990s by a duo of renowned hroughout the 1980s, Cas- like that being deployed for other studying the ways in which people interact with one another in “Wine is a topic that, while about 15 chefs: Jacques Pépin and Julia Child. But sandras—who now heads the purposes, detecting, for example, the fication, these four Boston University researchers are engaged in years ago there were a few books about it, that Black would be researching food- University’s Division of Systems status of power lines.” an era defined by globalization and new technology. T no one has really done an anthropology of focused anthropology was never a given. Engineering—was deeply involved with studying the ways in which people interact with one another in an Learn more wine,” she says. After graduating with a BA and MA what are called discrete-event systems. go.bu.edu/research/community To that end, Black has coedited a forth- in history from the University of British Computers, for example, are such sys- coming volume—due to be published in Columbia, she turned in proposals for a tems, ones that obey rules that humans From the open-air markets of Turin to 2013—that showcases new research into PhD that emphasized food as her angle establish rather than rules that emerge her research into wine and wine culture, into history. She learned quickly that the primarily from physics and chemistry Market she is steeped in the study of how topic would not be easily accepted by the and other factors of the exterior world. Coming Research communities and agriculture intersect. academic establishment. “Somebody came to visit me from Otis Home lack recently published a book “I realized then that food wasn’t really Elevator,” says Cassandras of the prompt Food has long about the role of an open-air market being addressed by that discipline,” Black that first launched him on a different tra- While working been ethnographer B in Turin, an Italian city whose resi- says. “People kept telling me: ‘You should jectory. “I knew nothing about elevators, on a book about and gastronomist dents now shop mainly at supermarkets. do intellectual history; this is not a good other than sometimes I would get very gentrification in Rachel Eden Black’s “I worked at the market. I sold fruits topic; there aren’t any documents for you frustrated waiting for one to come. So, communities in lens on the world. and vegetables, and chickens, cheese, and to use.’” they asked me if I was interested in look- Illinois, Maine, It took three years for her to come ing at how to schedule elevators.” and Massachusetts, to terms with the push-back and then Knowing only a little at first about how ethnographer Japonica Brown-Saracino find a foothold. Traction came from such devices worked, Cassandras entered caught sight of a separate tale, one the University of Turin in 2001, where a world of what amounted to vertical concerning the ways that queer women an anthropology department scholar- traffic management design. His task: to impacted and were impacted by the ship finally set her on a path that could refine a system so that elevators could places they chose to live. combine her historian’s training with her better “decide” how to deliver the greatest interest in food research. number of riders to the most floors in the ow, the assistant professor of soci- “Food is a lens through which you can fastest manner. ology is hot on the trail of the rest study the social, the political, the cultural, These days, he’s working on systems Nof the story—focusing on lesbian, the biological—there are all these ele- that deliver a different kind of rider to a bisexual, and queer-identified individuals. ments,” Black says. “It’s really taking different kind of destination: a sensor- U.S. Census data suggests that lesbian off. From all the books being published, driven system aimed at helping drivers couples are more likely than gay men to conversation around policy, I think find parking spots on busy city streets. to move outside of a central city, and to people have started to realize that food is “We use sensor networks in Smart communities rich with nature such as the really important.” Parking,” he says, referring to a munici- seashore or the woods. She is examining pally focused project in which wireless what has happened to them in the process. Learn more go.bu.edu/research/community devices tell travelers whether a parking “Why is this the case?” she asks. spot is reserved for them, open to a new “The puzzle is why now, why still today Porta Palazzo open-air reservation by them, or already reserved when gays and lesbians are increasingly market in Turin, Italy. by another driver. The idea is that the sys- accepted, would queer women be oriented tem would also direct drivers to the best to these places that among lesbians in the

4 Research at Boston University 2012 www.bu.edu/research 5 Considering Community

1970s and 1980s were presented as places can capture some of the money saved as Research Recognized to escape to?” Turning revenue from the project. This has led her to look closely at Green Recently, Kulatilaka has worked on by Art Jahnke Ithaca, New York; Greenfield, Massachu- into Green buildings owned by the Cambridge Hous- setts; San Luis Obispo, California; and ing Authority in Central Square. Some Portland, Maine. Perhaps it is no were heated entirely by electricity, some As Brown-Saracino delves into the wonder that an were particularly leaky, and all lacked the factors that influence where people live, a electrical engineer investment capital needed for retrofits. complex idea is emerging from her ongo- who became a “My contribution there, with Profes- ing collection of interviews: queer women professor of finance sor of Earth & Environment Robert are telling her that they move to places would take an interest in how green Kaufmann and a team of students, was where they can be out and accepted, but buildings can provide monetary benefits to first assess the opportunity; to try also where they can deeply integrate with for the people who have the resources to to quantify what the savings would be a heterosexual population. fund renewable energy projects. by using various statistical techniques This can come at a price—which is that analyze the demand patterns of the one element emerging from her study hat’s part of the story of Nalin building,” he says. of Ithaca—what she refers to as “a deep Kulatilaka, who teaches in the “We are now designing contracts where sense of loss associated with their inte- T School of Management and is a the building owner and the tenant could gration, a loss of lesbian community.” codirector of the Clean Energy & Environ- share the savings. These would occur in It is a theme, said Brown-Saracino, mental Sustainability Initiative. such a way that funding could be attracted that she intends to follow. She hopes to “My research is on sustainable from conventional—or at least semi-­ complete the writing of her book on the energy investments,” Kulatilaka says. conventional—sources like large banks.” subject within the next two years, provid- “From renewable energy sources like When the parties involved can tap into ing a close look at how social identities solar and wind to energy conservation the savings that come from using green inform the choices people make about and energy efficiency investments like energy, tenants are incentivized to con- where to live. building retrofits.” serve energy and funders see the value in The thrust of his work is to incentiv- providing resources to the project. Learn more ize the up-front funding for green energy Efforts like the Cambridge example go.bu.edu/research/community buildings from banks and other sources are now under way in the Back Bay and by writing a new kind of contract for Roxbury, part of what’s now known as University Provost and Chief the loans that fuel such changes. The the Boston University Smart Neighbor- Academic Officer Jean Morrison contracts are intended to monetize the hood Lab. and President Robert A. Brown. savings that green energy can achieve, so While conducting doctoral work at the that the investors who put up the capital MIT Energy Lab in the 1970s, Kulati- laka watched the nation’s energy crisis reach a peak. His observations fueled his winter, Boston University welcome addition to the ranks of these leading for membership must be approved by a three- an impulse to switch from engineer- joined the Association of American research universities.” fourths vote of the membership. ing to finance. He sought an avenue T Universities (AAU), an elite orga- Brown commented that he is very pleased to “Boston University’s admission to the AAU to approach energy problems from a nization of 61 leading research universities have the University join the AAU. “It’s gratifying is first and foremost an acknowledgment of community level, to bring funding to in the United States and Canada. BU, one of for Boston University to receive this recognition the quality and productivity of our outstanding the table by changing the concept of only four universities invited to join the group for the quality of our education and research faculty,” said University Provost and Chief Aca- efficiency into a reward system. since 2000, became the 62nd member. In the programs,” he said. “We look forward to par- demic Officer Jean Morrison. “They are making “I come at this from the consumer, the Boston area, only Harvard, MIT, and Brandeis ticipating with the AAU membership in helping fundamentally important contributions in dis- end user,” says Kulatilaka. “The transfor- are also members. guide the future of research universities in the ciplines ranging from the humanities and social mation of the coal into steam, and into Hunter R. Rawlings III, president of the AAU, United States as a critical resource for Ameri- sciences to the natural sciences, engineering, electricity that comes through the grid, announced on November 5 that President can leadership in higher education, knowledge and medicine. But in addition to the strength of and in the lightbulb it becomes light— ­Robert A. Brown had accepted the associa- creation, and innovation.” our faculty, this recognition is a testament to most of the energy is wasted toward that tion’s invitation. Rawlings said the decision Membership in the organization is by invita- the exceptional leadership of our president, Bob last part. If we can save that part, that to extend the invitation was based on an in- tion only, and is based on several criteria: the Brown. The results of his transformative leader- could become the real opportunity we depth review of the University’s research and quality of programs of academic research and ship are coming to fruition, and the University’s could harness.” > academic programs. scholarship; undergraduate, graduate, and admission into the AAU is one of the very “Boston University is an outstanding institu- professional education in a number of fields; significant tangible results.” * Learn more tion,” said Rawlings. “It belongs in the AAU and general recognition that a university is go.bu.edu/research/community by virtue of the strength of its research and outstanding by reason of the excellence of its academic programs. AAU universities play an research and education programs. A mem- Learn more go.bu.edu/research/aau essential role in America’s research enterprise bership committee of AAU presidents and and in educating the nation’s young scientists, chancellors periodically reviews universities for engineers, and scholars. Boston University is a AAU membership; institutions recommended

6 Research at Boston University 2012 www.bu.edu/research 7 “ dialogue | Mitchell Zuckoff Adventures in Hist J ry By Susan Seligson

itchell Zuckoff, a Boston University professor of journalism, can’t resist a great story, as long as he knows it’s true. An award- winning narrative journalist and author, Zuckoff does his research the old-fashioned way, with skepticism and shoe leather. Devoting scores of personal interviews to each project, he fleshes out page-turning tales from verifiable documents and testimonies, historic and contemporary. His latest book, the World War II survival tale Lost in Shangri-La: A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II, is Man embarrassment of narrative riches, a platter heaped high with heroism, history, human pathos and pluck, and nail-biting adventure. The book, published in April 2011, chronicles the May 1945 crash of the Gremlin Special, a plane carrying 15 U.S. servicemen and 9 members of the Women’s Army Corps on an R&R sightseeing flight over a valley frozen in time in the wilds of New Guinea. Three wounded survivors were stranded among an isolated tribe, unable to gauge the potential dangers they faced. A former Boston Globe reporter and author of several books, including Ponzi’s Scheme: The True Story of a Financial Legend, Zuckoff ventured deep in the equatorial rain forest to report the Gremlin story, which was widely covered at the time, but largely forgotten in the ensuing decades. The book draws on a trove of sources, from the recollections of a living survivor to a declassified U.S. Army report to a diary scrawled in secretarial shorthand.

Mitchell Zuckoff’s research for Lost in Shangri-La took him to the mountains of New Guinea and the wreckage of the WWII plane Gremlin Special.

8 Research at Boston University 2012 www.bu.edu/research 9 “ dialogue | Mitchell Zuckoff Q What makes a good story? books do that, which is odd because of wakes them up to the idea there was a lot in the narrative. I like where we suddenly ZUCKOFF: For me, there has to be a these are historic events. We already of work involved. learn about the Dani tribe or we learn the human connection. All my books have been know what happens. Tell me a little bit background of the Filipino paratroopers. I remember when I was writing a lot really different from each other, from dif- about how you pull that off. And these are little digressions from the of magazine pieces, I had this casual ferent eras. But I think that the one thing ZUCKOFF: I think that’s the key to nar- narrative arc, but when I first wrote, for rule for myself that my research was they have in common is they expose differ- rative. You have to make people willing to instance, that section about the Filipino done when I started hearing sources ent elements of the human condition. have that suspension of disbelief. You know, paratroopers it was four times as long say the same things over and over Lost in Shangri-La has “The Most Incred- because I fell in love with them. I was fasci- What makes a story a good book idea again. When do you feel like you’re ible Rescue Mission” in the subtitle. So you nated by this little moment in history that as opposed to just a good story? done with a book? know where it’s going the second you buy it. I knew nothing about. Then I realized that ZUCKOFF: I think for it to be a good ZUCKOFF: I like that rule. But in my It’s not called “The Most Horrible Disaster.” is not the story I’m telling here. And so the book idea it has to have critical mass. And experience with books, I want three Suspense and narrative go hand-in-hand. notebook dump comes down a lot. by critical mass I mean, first, there has people, at least, to say the same thing to I don’t know how to write a book like this to be enough material behind it to sus- me. And then I start feeling like maybe I’m That’s not easy to do. without both. tain 100,000 words versus a 5,000-word getting it. Like I’ve really triangulated this, ZUCKOFF: Oh, it’s brutal. You’re killing magazine piece. The stakes have to be high Does your decision to go full steam where every person who could have seen your darlings. You really have to be brutally enough. Plus there has to be this sort of ahead with a book-length narrative something at this moment who’s still alive disciplined. emotional mass of this person or these depend on what’s out there? For or who still may have left some papers This is something that’s very hard to problems or this set of circumstances— example, for Shangri-La you drew on behind—they’re all saying it the same way Margaret Hastings, the only female do for a young journalist starting out. the diary of the lone woman survivor, or close enough, then I’ve got that scene. survivor, whose diary recorded details of How do you teach that? And when you Margaret; for the Ponzi book you had And I write in scenes, of course, as a narra- the crash and its aftermath. teach it by example, who are the kind his autobiography. Has it happened tive writer. of writers who get it? that you’ve had to quash an idea Is your style of narrative writing a ZUCKOFF: I go right to John McPhee. I because there aren’t the sources out way to avoid what’s sometimes called find his stuff is so on point. I mean, if you’re I can’t tell you how there to deliver the story? How much “ “the notebook dump?” There must be does that figure into it? a powerful impulse to use everything many good ideas I’ve ZUCKOFF: It drives everything. I can’t you’ve got. tell you how many good ideas I’ve had or had or thought I had, ZUCKOFF: Yes. That’s why you do a thought I had, and I simply walked away second and third draft. You know, Lost in because there wasn’t a Margaret’s diary or and I simply walked Shangri-La could have been twice as long. Lost in Shangri-La features translations a Ponzi’s autobiography. There’s a project There were details that I may have fallen in Right: Crash survivor John McCollom of the diary that crash survivor Margaret away because there I’m working on now, and I wasn’t willing with Dani tribesmen. Hastings penned in secretarial shorthand. love with, but you have to discipline yourself to commit to it until I was sure I had that Below: Survivors Ken Decker, Margaret to say, “I know this does not really advance wasn’t a Margaret’s critical mass of material. I don’t know if Hastings, and John McCollom pose in the story.” Though I do like digressions front of a glider that played a role in we want to quantify it—but you accept, their rescue. diary or a Ponzi’s maybe, a 20-percent gap in a story. You autobiography. can’t accept 50-to-60-percent gaps. ” Do you think young writers understand how much legwork professional writ- ers do, which they often must abandon or set aside? Do you think that they are they significant have a sense of how much work you reading about oranges or you’re enough to carry have to do before you do the real work? reading about the bark canoe . . . I’ve readers’ interest ZUCKOFF: I hate to overgeneralize, but never seen a more elegant short for all those hours? certainly a lot of them don’t really get it. book than Levels of the Game. Read- You wouldn’t watch a Some of them think, Professor Zuckoff ing that book you can almost hear 10-hour-long movie. But sits down and says, “Okay, now I will write the tennis ball going back and forth you are asking that of book this book.” And 100,000 words later, it’s across the net. And that book could readers. So if it has that, if done and it gets published. And, as you have been five times as long. it has the human element, know, that’s ridiculous. I’m not sure there that makes me say, “Okay, I’m Do you ever hire assistants to is an appreciation for what it takes, and in willing to take a look at this as help you with research? fairness, I’m not sure I fully got it either a book-length project.” ZUCKOFF: Never for primary when I was 20 years old. But the smart ones source research, but yes, I hire The element of suspense will look at the 30 pages of footnotes in my BU graduate students for other is part of what keeps read- books, or any book, and say, “Whoa, he end- research tasks. ers turning pages, and your noted 500 sources in there,” and that kind continued

www.bu.edu/research 11 “ dialogue | Mitchell Zuckoff

How do you feel about nonfiction writ- Say you’re someplace like the wilds of I read once that Truman Capote never ers who hire researchers? New Guinea for a set period of time and took notes, he just went back to his ZUCKOFF: Well, this is just the old you’ve got to bring home the story. Is hotel room and wrote like crazy. How reporter in me, but if I don’t do that shoe that a lot of pressure? do you take notes, and what’s your safe- leather myself, I’ll miss something. And I’ll ZUCKOFF: In the field I am really focused. guard against losing notes or tapes? never fully appreciate the little moment, I spend so much time trying to eliminate­ ZUCKOFF: Again, it’s that belt and sus- the little touch, the little detail. possible things that could go wrong penders. I always have a tape recorder. And beforehand. I set up all kinds of belt and I’m always taking notes. And, as quickly as Let’s talk about shoe leather. And life suspender systems. I knew, for instance, possible, I transcribe those notes at night. before Google. You had to go to first- Especially when I’m on the road; I don’t hand sources. You could smell and sleep a lot. I’ll spend that time, and then I’ll touch the real thing. J email the notes to myself or to my IBackup ZUCKOFF: Yes. Because those of us who account so they’re in “the cloud.” So the didn’t have [the Internet] to begin with You learn over time that it’s most I can ever possibly lose is one day of don’t see it as the first and last source. If “ work. Because if you lose the whole trip, I you use it with discretion, it’s fantastic. It’s never going to be perfect and mean, think about it. The idea of losing all like a map—okay, I found this guy online those tapes? I couldn’t deal with it. In New who knows everything about New Guinea. you don’t want the perfect to Guinea, I left it on a thumb drive with my Fantastic. Now let me call him up and say be the enemy of the good. translator—if everything else went wrong, I need to come to North Carolina to spend ” he could send it to me. a day with you, picking your brain about the Dani tribe. That’s what you have to Let’s talk about work habits. When Do you allow yourself a respite in Should young people be encouraged to teach students, that it’s a gateway, not the you’re working on a book, do you give between books? pursue journalism? And if the answer’s destination. It’s a dead thing. It’s somebody in New Guinea if I didn’t have a transla- yourself a day off? ZUCKOFF: I should. And I keep telling yes, why, how, and where? else’s work. And so if you treat it as though, tor I’d get nothing done. I have all kinds of ZUCKOFF: I don’t. I’m not healthy that myself I will, but I haven’t yet. Someone ZUCKOFF: I answer that a little differently “Oh, I know the answer,” well, then you’re backup systems, and so all of that is done way. When I’m working and I have that once said that an author between books is than with a pure yes or no. They shouldn’t not creating anything original for yourself. in advance. And that is one way to relieve ­momentum and hear the voice in the pages, like a torture victim with nothing to confess. be encouraged to pursue journalism unless But I also tell them that this is the fun stuff, some of my anxiety when I’m out in the I want to keep it going. The most I’ll ever take And that’s how I feel, where the torture just they have to. I mean, I don’t want to tell when I get to go and meet somebody and Zuckoff traveled to New Guinea field with only a one-shot deal; I can only off is one day. ­continues, and I have nowhere to put it. everyone it’s the greatest thing in the world. to interview members of the Dani talk to them about something they’re really I have nowhere to put the energy. The book I really think you have to have a passion for tribe who had witnessed the crash, go there once. It never goes perfectly. You Do you dream about the books you’re passionate about. And I’m getting paid to including Helenma Wandik (far right, I’m writing now will be my sixth book in doing this work. Because it’s not easy. And never get everything you dream of. working on? do this. orange hat). 12 years. So I really haven’t taken a break. it’s never been easy. And when I started in You make a wish list. And if you ZUCKOFF: I wish I dreamed about them. I think I will after this next one, but I always the 1980s as a journalist, it wasn’t easy to hit 75 percent of those items, I’m usually just awake. Dreaming would say that. get a job, it wasn’t easy to do the work, and declare victory and go home. If imply that I’m sleeping, so usually when it wasn’t easy to pay your rent. Sure, we’ve you ever got 100 percent of those I’m working on a book I’m up at four in the How do you feel about having to pro- had other kinds of things happen to the items, then your list wasn’t morning thinking that last passage I wrote mote your books? Is it satisfying or is business side of journalism, but if you are ambitious enough. You learn is clunky and doesn’t really explain how an it just taking time away from the work passionate about it, of course you should do over time that it’s never going to amphibious plane actually works. I just lie that you do? this. There are more places to publish today be perfect and you don’t want there obsessing. ZUCKOFF: It’s somewhere in between. than there were when I started. There are the perfect to be the enemy of I like talking about the book. I gave a talk When and how do you go from the more opportunities for you to explore dif- the good. at the Harvard Travellers Club, and it was reporting to the actual writing? ferent kinds of writing because of the Web. a wonderful crowd. They were really smart, What do you love ZUCKOFF: What I do is—and it’s ludi- I mean, it’s as if somebody took an ax and so I enjoyed that. about being in the crous—I sneak up on myself. I tell myself said, “We’re going to destroy all these print- field, reporting? I’m not really starting to write yet, I’m just How does teaching fit in with your ing presses. And in their place, we’re going ZUCKOFF: Why do I love playing around. I’m really still in research writing life? to give everybody a printing press called a it? I’m in the most remote mode, but, you know, if I were writing, this ZUCKOFF: It keeps me sane. I really love MacBook Pro.” place on earth and I’m book could really start this way. But I’m not teaching. And the dean here and my chair- Is this something you always wanted talking to people who have really writing. I’m just playing around. And man have been really good about helping to do? never met an American I’ll do that for weeks. It becomes kind of a me work out a schedule that allows me to ZUCKOFF: I was definitely part of the before. And I’m seeing blended transition. It’s silly, but it works. have time when I’m really doing my writing. post-Watergate generation where I thought things and smelling things Teaching energizes me. If I were only writ- those were the coolest guys in the world. and doing things. This is ing, I would be too deeply inside my head. And so as soon as I got to college, I said, the most exciting work. I need to get outside and talk to students; “Journalism.” it’s a nice mix.

12 Research at Boston University 2012 www.bu.edu/research 13 “ dialogue | Merav Opher

reshaping the solar system By John Rennie

ssistant Professor Merav Opher of the Department of Astronomy is fast becoming one of the most celebrated young scientists in the field of space physics. Her iconoclastic discoveries have literally A changed the shape of the solar system in astronomers’ models. Born in Israel and raised in Brazil, Opher joined the Boston University faculty in 2011 after holding positions at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and George Mason University. As a space physicist, Opher is concerned with the behavior of the ionized gases called plasmas that make up stars and are the most abundant form of visible matter in the universe. Her primary focus is on the plasmas that radiate out from the sun as a solar wind and create a “heliosphere” bubble reaching far beyond the orbit of Pluto. Yet her interests and the implications of her work extend from the very surface of the sun to potentially habitable planets around other stars, as she explains in this interview.

14 Research at Boston University 2012 www.bu.edu/research 15 “ dialogue | Merav Opher + Paul Withers The outer heliosphere isn’t your only professional interest. You’ve also started looking more closely at the innermost part of the heliosphere, very close to the sun. OPHER: Yes, the lower corona, as it’s called, is this layer of plasma that lies between one and 10 solar radii from the sun. For comparison, the Earth is 200 solar radii away, so you can see the lower corona is very close in—much closer than we have ever sent spacecraft. One probe, Helios, went to 20 solar radii, and another will get to 10 solar radii in 2017–2018. So we only have indirect measurements to go by. It’s funny, but for me it’s like the two major unexplored areas of the solar system are what’s very far away and what’s very close. One is hard to study because it’s so distant Measuring the and the other because it is so hot. They’re both great open areas for science, though. Ionosphere of I started working on the lower corona when mars I was at JPL, but the outer heliosphere was always taking me away from it. But when I n August, NASA’s Mars Science first became a professor at George Mason Lab­oratory deployed Curiosity—a University in 2005, I started putting all my I nuclear-powered rover the size of a students in this area, and we’re still build- MINI Cooper—to explore the alien terrain. ing on that foundation. We run big com- For Assistant Professor of Astronomy puter simulations of the conditions, based Paul Withers, the three dramatic minutes on models developed at the University of of the probe’s descent through the upper Michigan and elsewhere. atmosphere—and the precise measurements continued of aerodynamic drag the craft experienced on its way down to a safe landing—are the most interesting of the entire mission. Withers is searching for a better picture of the Martian atmosphere to enrich understanding of his Q You’ve attracted a lot of there could be asymmetries but nobody had the kinetic energy of the plasma ions. But major research interest, the planet’s iono- attention recently for some surprising paid much attention, and we were the first instead, that energy seems to be transferred sphere, the part of an upper atmosphere where discoveries involving the heliosphere to quantitatively predict how big it would to other particles. That’s also a huge surprise. Image of the solar system energetic sunlight can split neutral gas mol- as seen from outside. Figure 1 at the edge of the solar system. Could be. And then in 2007 the Voyager 2 space- ecules into a tenuous plasma of charged ions. Last year you also showed that shows the interstellar magnetic you review what some of them were? craft crossed the termination shock [where The ionosphere around Mars has played a there was a lot of structure in the field (brown lines), the helio- OPHER: One surprise at the top of the list the solar wind piles up and slows down as crucial role in determining whether the planet heliosheath. pause (yellow surface), and the is that the solar system is not symmetrical, it collides with the interstellar medium] ever might have had conditions capable of OPHER: Yes. The old idea was that the termination shock (green sur- that the southern part is pushed in by the much sooner than expected in the south, sustaining life. — JR heliosheath would be smooth, with the solar face). The trajectories of Voyager magnetic field from the rest of the galaxy. in keeping with our prediction. That made 1 and 2 are shown as purple and wind gradually slowing down and deflect- Twelve years ago when I was starting people say, “Whoa!” red lines. ing out of the solar system. But instead, Jim figure 1 out, nobody would have said there was The Voyager people did simulations that Drake [at the University of Maryland] and any asymmetry. Very senior researchers showed fluctuations in solar activity could I found evidence in the Voyager data that were convinced that any variations in the only account for much smaller asymme- showed the plasma in the heliosheath is heliosphere came from fluctuations in solar tries. Then the space physics community organized into a thick layer of “bubbles” The heliosheath and the activity over time. Every time I suggested acknowledged that magnetic fields might be 100 million miles wide. heliopause. Figure 2 is what that magnetic fields might be important, strong enough to have an influence after all. Opher’s team currently believes people would wave their hands, “No, no.” I But it took a few years. How does that happen? the heliosheath and the heliopause practically got tomatoes thrown at me when Voyager also showed that the OPHER: In the outer heliosphere, the mag- look like: a bath of bubbles, or I’d give talks on the idea. heliosheath—at the leading edge of the netic field from the sun becomes very tightly disconnected magnetic field lines But in 2006 some colleagues and I heliosphere where it moves through the folded in the moving plasma, like the pleats (red frothy material). Figure 3 is what Opher anticipates that the published a prediction in the Astrophysi- interstellar medium—is surprisingly cold. in a ballerina’s skirt. We think that where The Martian atmosphere. heliopause will actually look like: cal Journal that the heliosphere would be The expectation was that it would be hot, the pleats become very thin and touch one a porous surface. tilted up at an angle, and pushed in on the with a temperature of about a million another, the magnetic field can reconnect figure 2 figure 3 READ THE Full STORY southern side and bulging out on the north. degrees Celsius, because the energy from the into closed loops, which can reorganize the go.bu.edu/research/space Other people had published previously that shock transition would be dumped back into plasma into these huge bubble shapes.

16 Research at Boston University 2012 www.bu.edu/research 17 Jeffrey Hughes + “ dialogue | Merav Opher + elizabeth blanton

What makes the he’s the one who helped get me interested Having good role models and colleagues lower corona so in plasmas and magnetic fields in the first can make a big difference. My group here significant? Every time I suggested that place. What he said to us was, “You can do at BU used to be just four great women, and OPHER: What my “ whatever you like.” I think it didn’t even we called them “the Ladies of the Helio- group and I have magnetic fields might be occur to him that there might be a problem sphere.” But now we have two guys, too! been finding over for women in science. BU seems to have worked out well Always Sunny the years is that important, people would As an undergraduate and graduate stu- Reading the Clues for you. the lower corona is dent at the University of São Paulo, I didn’t in Space OPHER: One of the big attractions for in Galaxy Clusters where the magnetic wave their hands, ‘No, no.’ have to think about it much because I was me was the chance to work alongside Jeff fields primarily exert in the astronomy department, and those n February 1942, British and German I practically got tomatoes Hughes and the Center for Integrated Space our hundred and eighty million light influence on the solar tend to have more women than physics antiaircraft radars were suddenly over- Weather Modeling group. What I’m doing years from Earth sits a great cluster of wind and on other departments do. whelmed with noise from a mysterious thrown at me when I’d give is different from space weather as they’re F galaxies that astronomers call Abell I phenomena. Farther The first time I really felt it was in 1999, 2052. At its heart is a giant elliptical galaxy signal. “Each thought the other had come up doing it, but there’s a lot of overlap. from the sun than when I went to the plasma physics depart- centered on a black hole as wide as our entire with some wonderful jamming mechanism,” talks on the idea. Also, BU has the only department in the says Astronomy Professor Jeffrey Hughes. that, the effect is ” ment at UCLA and realized I was the only solar system. country that is half pure astronomy and half Studies tied the interference to the sun, and minor. And the inter- woman. I spent two years there and wasn’t Much of Assistant Professor of Astron- pure space physics. I love that interface. It’s scientists realized that solar flares were play with the solar sure what I would do next. But then I met omy Elizabeth Blanton’s research focuses on a fantastic marriage! [Laughing] And the producing powerful bursts of radio waves. wind also has a big with Paulette Liewer at the Jet Propulsion a phenomenon astronomy students have to take plasma called AGN The incident was a pointed example effect on what those magnetic fields will do. much better understanding of how the lower Laboratory, who turned out to have inter- physics—I love it! (Active Galactic of the influence of space weather on For example, my graduate student Chris- corona relates to the solar wind. ests and objectives like mine. She offered human affairs. Space weather concerns the Nucleus) tina Kay has been running simulations me a postdoc job, and it let me shift back interplay of charged particles, radiation, How is your group’s lower corona work feedback. In that show when the sun ejects magnetic into space physics. and magnetic fields emanating from the relevant to stars other than our sun, so-called cool disturbances called coronal mass ejections, sun into interplanetary space. And when and planets other than Earth? core clusters like or CMEs, the direction in which they move Abell 2052, as we need to understand what the impact OPHER: We’ve started to look at what and expand is determined almost entirely the ionized gas of these phenomena might be on Earth, kinds of wind conditions will arise from we increasingly turn to Boston University’s within the first couple of solar radii. This becomes denser, other stars, and what they would mean for Center for Integrated Space Weather Mod- makes sense, of course, because that’s it emits more planets close to those stars. You know, with BU Astronomers Composite Chandra X-ray eling (CISM) that Hughes helped found. where the magnetic fields are strongest and X-rays, loses the sun and Earth it’s so easy, but for stars (blue) and VLT optical (gold) energy, and CISM draws even tiny deflections will be important. Take a Giant Step image of the cluster of galaxies with a magnetic axis that is more tilted cools faster than from various The CMEs also create shock waves in the Abell 2052. and more magnetically active, the field will Forward the less dense subdisciplines in coronal plasma where the material piles up, space phys- oscillate much more. So planets orbiting gas farther out. That unstable arrangement but just within the first two or three solar ics to create close to those very active stars will get n a move that Andrew West, assistant should cause large quantities of gas to stream radii. Within those shock waves, particles an integrated slapped by these very changeable condi- professor of astronomy, likens to “going inward to restore stability, and that cool, could possibly be accelerated up to one view of space tions. For me, this is convincing evidence— I from reading by candlelight to reading dense gas should be condensing into new gigaelectron-volt of energy. Those are the stars. Yet fewer stars seem to have formed weather. One even before doing simulations—that to by electric light,” BU astronomers are now energetic particles that are most dangerous able to view the heavens through the than simple models predicted. of the greatest study the habitability of extrasolar planets, challenges in for astronauts, so it’s very useful to under- powerful Discovery Channel Telescope, Assistant Professor of Astronomy Andrew West (left) Something must be heating the gas, and A solar flare in the extreme you’ve got to know something about the space weather stand where they’re coming from. newly constructed at the Lowell Observatory, and Associate Dean of Research & Outreach James Blanton and her colleagues think they know ultraviolet part of the spectrum. conditions of the stellar wind. We’re putting studies is that But a lot also depends on the conditions in near Flagstaff, Arizona. Jackson were instrumental in executing BU’s investment what it is. Her work suggests that jets of the pieces together on that and it should be in the new telescope. science does the solar wind, too. Rebecca Evans, another Boston University has contributed fast-moving particles may warm the cooling, my next paper. radiating gas and stop much of it from falling not yet know graduate student, found that if the sun $10 million of the $53 million cost of the seven-story project in exchange for an below a certain average temperature. what the inherent unpredictability of space launches a CME into different solar wind Astrophysics and space physics are The Discovery Channel Telescope in Arizona. weather systems might be. agreement that grants BU astronomers use That finding is important, she explains, backgrounds, the distribution of tempera- fields in which women are still very Hughes hopes that space weather stud- of the telescope. The new equipment enables because existing models for galaxy formation tures in the CME and in the surrounding much in the minority, but that doesn’t ies can be a tool to reduce the counterpro- BU astronomers to see more than twice as far that do not include the ingredient of AGN ductive partitioning of scientific knowledge plasma will be completely different, too. So seem to have held you back. into the universe as they had previously. feedback tend to predict that the universe into isolated fields. Much of what he and I’m trying to develop a much better descrip- OPHER: I’ve talked about this a lot with — by Amy Sutherland should hold more massive galaxies than his colleagues have learned could be useful tion of what happens with the CMEs. my sister, and why we both “made it” in astronomers actually see. — JR to astrophysicists seeking to understand It also goes the other way. We’re finding science. [Note: Opher’s twin sister is Michal the conditions around stars that are frus- that identical measurements of the solar Lipson, a noted nanophotonics engineer at READ THE Full STORY tratingly far away. — JR wind around Earth can match up with Cornell University and a MacArthur Foun- go.bu.edu/research/space READ THE Full STORY completely different profiles of what’s hap- dation grant winner.] My dad was a plasma go.bu.edu/research/space pening in the lower corona. We really need a astrophysicist in Israel and Brazil, and READ THE Full STORY go.bu.edu/research/space

18 Research at Boston University 2012 www.bu.edu/research 19 “ dialogue | Darrell Kotton

Q Did you always know that you about how the lung develops early on, that Balazs, and the four of us talked science wanted to go into research? it was going to be very difficult to do it with- endlessly, debated, argued, criticized each KOTTON: No, I didn’t. I was always out doing basic developmental studies first. other, and basically were each other’s best interested in science and research, but I fans and best critics. We realized that we This all seems obvious. I mean, of didn’t think I wanted to do it for my life. It had a common way of approaching sci- course that’s how you do it. was only when I was a pulmonary fellow ence, which was to surround oneself with KOTTON: It seems obvious in retrospect, and developed a project with my BU very vocal critics to continually have your but at the time we thought of it—most of us mentor, Alan Fine, that had a stem cell results scrutinized. That was the best way in the field behaved like alchemists. I mean, bent to it—that work sparked a complete to try to reach truth, which is in the end it’s almost embarrassing to look back on Opening the love and obsession with basic science what we’re all after. how we oversimplified the field and how research. It was quite unexpected. I was I knew I wanted to come back to Boston to meant to be a friendly neighborhood University at the end of my postdoc to Doors pulmonologist, a full-time clinician, and I open my own lab because I felt that BU was guess I had no choice; it was just to a very special place, a very collaborative surrender to my obsession. place. It was almost like an artists’ colony That was the best of pulmonary medicine and research. I also Open Source How did you think stem cell research “ began to encourage George and Gustavo to might help solve lung disease? way to try to reach consider Boston University, since if they KOTTON: Pulmonary medicine had Medicine joined me we could do science the way we made great strides in developing drugs truth, which is in wanted to, in the most collaborative, com- By barbara moran and treatments for inflammatory diseases munal way possible. like asthma. You could take patients who the end what we’re were short of breath, diagnose them with Did you see science being done in a way asthma—if that’s what they had—prescribe all after. that was not what you wanted to do? an inhaler, and they’d come back essentially ” KOTTON: I think when a student or a cured the next visit. It was remarkable. And postdoc first decides to pursue a life in yet there were these other patients who had science, it’s done from a deep-seated love diseases of the lung epithelium—wound for the scientific method, for the search for responses in the lungs that end up scarring— naïve we were. We thought you could take truth, the advancement of new knowledge, and for those patients we had nothing to hematopoietic stem cells that can become and it’s done for the most pure, altruistic offer. It was like we just served as priests or anything, sprinkle salt and pepper on them, reasons. And then, as you form your own rabbis. We would counsel them and diag- and out comes your desired lineage. And lab, you become a principal investigator nose them and then prescribe drugs that now we know that’s so simplistic. and then later, if you’re successful, you start we freely admitted didn’t work. And I think to get exposed to tremendous pressures. So how did you meet George Murphy it was logical to most of us that some kind And I think career advancement in science and Gustavo Mostoslavsky, and how of stem cell might solve the hurdles of lung often brings out the worst in us, which is did CReM come into being? epithelium not repairing. the urge to be . . . KOTTON: While I was in Richard Mul- Because it could actually regenerate? ligan’s lab at Harvard for my postdoctoral Competitive? arrell Kotton is one of those rare physicians who successfully straddles the KOTTON: Yeah, the buzzwords regenera- fellowship, I quickly found my scientific KOTTON: Elitist, exclusive, competitive, a tion and repopulation were all the rage and soul mates, who were Gustavo, George, and need to feed one’s ego, perhaps—a desire for worlds of medicine and research. Trained as a pulmonary doctor, Kotton is we thought the native lung wasn’t doing a another student at that time named Alex credit, and it sometimes can cause people the codirector of the Center for Regenerative Medicine (CReM), which he great job in these patients, and so artificially continued page 23 engineering an exogenous cell therapy like founded with George Murphy and Gustavo Mostoslavsky in a collaborative a stem cell would be the answer. There was Deffort among scientists at Boston University and Boston Medical Center. He also works as no question that pluripotent stem cells could turn into lung epithelium—at least a physician in pulmonary, allergy, and sleep medicine at Boston Medical Center. nature could do it in an embryo—and how CReM’s motto is “advancing science to heal the world.” cell lines. They also developed a method to grow lung to mimic that in a culture dish was really “As corny as that sounds,” said codirector Murphy, “we tissue from induced pluripotent stem cells, giving the question. We had no idea how to do it. really want to push science forward to effect change.” researchers a critical tool to investigate the diseases in What I then found through a lot of reading CReM encompasses six labs, studying how stem cells CReM’s bank. Rather than sell the disease bank, Kotton and discussion was that so little was known may be used to treat diseases of the lungs, liver, blood, decided to make it freely available to other researchers and gut. Within CReM, Kotton’s lab focuses specifically in the hope of advancing the field more quickly. This Right: At the Center for Regenerative Medicine (CReM), on inherited lung disease. One of his lab’s cornerstone type of “open source biology”—openly sharing reagents, pulmonologist Darrell Kotton researches methods of achievements has been the creation of a lung disease protocols, and data—is fundamental to Kotton’s producing lung tissue from stem cells. “bank” with more than 100 lung-disease-specific stem research and his philosophy of science. Far right: Dr. Darrell Kotton with Assistant Professor of Medicine Dr. Andrew Wilson.

20 Research at Boston University 2012 www.bu.edu/research 21 “ dialogue | Darrell Kotton Alpha Doctors

n the annals of cruel Yet progress has begun and is good enough,” says Kotton. “The engineering­. “There are major Kotton is partnering with an existing to behave selfishly, which is completely interpretation that we have access to, from diseases, Alpha-1 antitryp- accelerating. “This is a field that lung cells we reach might be analo- safety issues with pluripotent clinical trial that is using a new drug removed from the ideals and the reasons collaborators, is much more, having this sin deficiency surely ranks literally changes by the week,” says gous to a baby in the third trimester, cells,” notes ­Murphy. Because to treat liver disease. Kotton plans to they went into science in the first place. open source approach. People are very high on the list. Caused by a George Murphy, who codirects and we really need to go much the cells can become any type of make iPS cells from people currently Personally, the times in my life when I’ve trusting; people know they can share things Idefect in a single gene, the disease, CReM with Kotton. And though a further.” Creating more mature cells tissue, without proper safeguards undergoing the trial, and test if the iPS been most fulfilled and most happy are with us because it’s always going to be a called “Alpha-1” for short, causes cure is probably decades away, the requires a deeper knowledge of they could potentially grow out cells can predict which drugs will be when I’ve been the most altruistic. So, for two-way arrow. And that makes the science wheezing, shortness of breath, and first fruits of Kotton’s work will likely how progenitor cells grow into lung of control, forming tumors. toxic or beneficial in which patients. a long time I was a busker on the streets, move much faster. recurring lung infections, and often go from bench to bedside in the cells. How, exactly, does a stem Then there’s the engineering If this approach works, it could leads patients to develop emphyse- next five years. cell decide to become a lung cell? challenge: once the safety issues streamline drug testing with less risk playing guitar and singing to people, which After we published the cell bank, a lot of ma in their 30s. “These people are Kotton’s lab works with induced And once it decides, how does it are overcome, how do you deliver to patients. is a very fulfilling job, I must say, and you’re companies and venture capitalists sought suffering on so many levels,” says pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. These remember that it’s a lung cell and iPS-derived lung cells into patients? Kotton’s team is also investigat- basically giving it out for free. The other us out. Their goal was to gain control of our Darrell Kotton. “They are literally are adult skin cells that scientists not a liver cell? Delivering genes to damaged lung ing another aspect of personalized time in my life is when I was with my wife bank and they were willing to pay a lot of suffocating to death.” reprogram to pluripotency, after In Kotton’s lab, many of these tissue is tricky because of the lungs’ medicine: taking a patient who is not volunteering abroad in India and Africa money for it. And so that was a moment of Kotton’s clinical experience has which the cells can differentiate into basic questions fall to Assistant architecture and physiology—they responding to conventional drug ther- for no pay, serving as a volunteer in medi- reckoning: were we going to give up control led him to an ambitious research almost any type of tissue. But iPS Professor of Medicine Laertis don’t regenerate much and have a apy, and using their iPS cells to design cal schools there. It was an incredibly for the money, or were we going to maintain goal: to develop cures for inherited cells are finicky, and getting them Ikonomou, who studies the “pri- complicated air exchange system, a drug regimen that is more likely to fulfilling experience. control of our bank and promote it in the lung diseases like Alpha-1 and cystic work. This technique would allow doc- to follow directions is not easy. mordial progenitors,” the 100 or so so it’s difficult for cells to graft way we had envisioned, as a freely avail- fibrosis using gene therapy and stem For instance, it took Kotton’s team undifferentiated cells that lead to there. Similarly, a dish of lung cells tors to simultaneously test different Did you think that joining forces with able resource for all mankind? In the end, cells. And he has a firm vision of how seven years to develop a technique all lung cells. “It’s very fast,” says doesn’t automatically form itself therapies on a patient’s actual cells two like-minded people would help we didn’t give up control and that was an it can be done: scratch a few skin for growing iPS cells into lung cells. Ikonomou, describing the process. into a lung, even when seeded with no risk to the patient. keep you on the right track? important moment in our evolution. KOTTON: Yes. I think there’s so much pressure to be knocked off the path of your That’s interesting because one could ideals that having your best friends, really, argue if you sold the bank, or what- 1. Adult lung cells. Cells in a bronchiole (small there to smack you in the face and say, “Hey, ever—leased the bank—you could have airway) glow green, indicating that they are remember who you are,” and, “Remember made enough money to hire more expressing a gene called Nkx2-1. The cells’ nuclei have been stained blue for visibility. Knowing the goal” has been very valuable for the researchers and promote your science when progenitor cells express Nkx2-1 is key to three of us. that way. understanding how stem cells differentiate into KOTTON: Well, this is exactly the con- lung cells. And theoretically your science will actu- versation we had: should we do that? But 2. A five-day-old aggregate of mouse embryonic ally progress faster—that’s your hope? then it really forced us to think about the stem cells. A ring of endoderm (green) sur- KOTTON: There’s no question that the rounds a cluster of still-undifferentiated stem end goal. And we thought if the outcome amount of creative thinking and data and cells (red). The endoderm is the innermost layer was that the bank became exclusive or of an early embryo, and eventually gives rise to the liver, lung, thyroid, and pancreas. restricted in any way to the research com- munity—that this was against our ideals 3. Liver cells grown from iPS cells. Kotton’s team took cells from a patient with Alpha-1 antitryp- and our goals and that we couldn’t do that. sin deficiency, converted them to iPS cells, and grew them into liver cells with their characteris- And do you feel good about that? 1 2 3 tic polygonal shape. Kotton and his team, which includes postdoctoral fellows KOTTON: I think it’s the best decision we Finn Hawkins and Maria Serra, are working to create lung ever made. tissue from adult stem cells.

cells off a patient, turn them into To do it, they created a knock-in “It starts as a spot of 100 cells onto a lung-shaped scaffold. Kotton and his team speak regu- stem cells, knock out the damaged reporter gene that glowed green and within 24 hours the beautiful Kotton’s group is collaborating with larly to Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency gene, replace it with a normal gene, when the stem cells expressed a branching of lung tissue appears. scientists in Boston University’s support groups, and also host groups grow the stem cells into healthy gene called Nkx2-1, marking a step When I see this I’m still amazed.” biomedical engineering depart- of patients in their lab, who “really lungs, and put them back into the toward becoming lung cells. This Ikonomou is now performing “deep ment to deal with some of these push us to come up with a cure,” says patient. Though the path is clear, allowed the team to track the cells sequencing,” on the primordial pro- challenges, creating better scaffolds Kotton. “That’s the hardest thing,” says each step will take years of pains- as they developed into lung tissue. genitors, a detailed gene sequence and understanding the mechanical Gustavo Mostoslavsky, who codirects taking science, and his vision will This work, published in Cell Stem Cell that will note exactly which forces at work. CReM with Kotton and Murphy. “But likely take decades to realize. “It’s in 2012, marked a huge advance in the biomarkers are expressed at each Despite these long-term now we are able to tell them that the so frustrating because we know the field and will likely have a far-reaching step, and lead to a more nuanced challenges, it’s likely that some of treatments are going to come in our mutation responsible for the disease impact on the study of inherited lung understanding of the differentia- Kotton’s research will be helping lifetime.” — BM and we’re powerless to do anything disease. But the homegrown lung tion process. patients within the next few years. about it,” says Kotton. “On paper you cells are far too delicate and imma- In addition to these basic One near-term application is in the can actually write down all the steps ture to help patients yet. biology questions, Kotton’s lab burgeoning field of personalized it would take to cure the disease. Not “The main hurdle in the field is is also addressing some critical medicine, or what Kotton likes to to treat it, but to cure it.” that the cells we’re making aren’t questions of stem cell safety and call “a clinical trial in a test tube.”

22 Research at Boston University 2012 go.bu.edu/research 23 “ dialogue | Kyle Allison & Jim Collins

persistent beginnings

By Chris Berdik

hen Boston University PhD candidate Kyle Allison started working on a potential breakthrough treatment for chronic Wbacterial infections, the task seemed impossible. Two people convinced him to keep trying. One was the head of his lab, biomedical engineer Jim Collins, a William Fairfield Warren Distin- guished Professor. The other was James Joyce.

The year before joining Collins’s in the English language. According to Alli- lab in 2007 as a biomedical engineering son, the challenge of Joyce’s novel, written doctoral student, Allison had earned a with a mix of sentence fragments, stream of master’s degree in English literature at the consciousness, and multilingual puns, was University of London. He knew he wanted great preparation for biomedical research. to be a scientist, but he also loved literature, “Understanding that book is kind of a and he took advantage of a fellowship to mad hunt,” he says. “The experience of follow up on that love before he came to working that hard to piece it together and BU. He wrote his master’s thesis on Joyce’s figure it out was really useful when I started experimental novel, Finnegans Wake, trying to solve the big problems being reputedly the most difficult work of fiction worked on in Jim’s lab.”

24 Research at Boston University 2012 www.bu.edu/research 25 “ dialogue | Kyle Allison & Jim Collins < Kyle Allison fights “persisters,” bacteria thought to cause many hard-to-treat infections.

Can you tell us a little more information.” Jim said, “Just go down to the Q about bacterial persisters? lab and get some experiments going.” That’s Kyle Allison: They are a subpopula- how people make discoveries. tion of bacteria that tolerate antibiotics. They’re not different from normal bacteria OK, then what? in the population, in that they should be KA: I went back to it. The dormancy of per- killed by the antibiotic, but for some reason, sisters was thought to be the reason why the they go into a state of dormancy. antibiotics weren’t effective. The thought was that maybe we could switch these So, we’re not talking about the dormant bacteria back into an actively infamous “super bugs” here? dividing state. If we could just make them Jim Collins: Right. They’re genetically normal again, then we could kill them off identical to those bacteria that are suscep- with antibiotics. tible to the antibiotics. But, they have a bio- So, that’s what I was trying to do. For a logical or physiological response that affords few months, I kept trying to find a way to them protection. It’s the biological equiva- trick the dormant bacteria into waking up. lent of ducking and covering your head. But, the things I tried weren’t very success- These bacterial persisters are now ful, and it kind of led me to start reframing thought to underlie recurring, chronic the question. infections. This goes across the bacterial spectrum. In the past, it was thought that the person was likely getting reinfected. Now, the thought is that persisters cause these clinical conditions. Persisters are Jim Collins: also thought to underlie biofilms, which are a major problem in hospitals, espe- It’s the biological cially for any device put in the body, be “ it a catheter, an artificial knee or hip, a equivalent of ducking pacemaker, or a defibrillator. and covering your What was the genesis of this research? KA: When I started working at the lab, Jim head. had me look into the biology of how persist- ” ers are formed. But at a certain point, Jim said to me, “You know the whole reason why we’re interested in persisters at all is After doing some reading and thinking on to try and kill them off better.” He suggested the problem, I thought that maybe you don’t we might leapfrog ahead and find a way to need to completely wake these bacteria up kill persisters off without fully understand- to kill them off. Maybe I could metabolically ing the mechanisms of their formation. stimulate persisters to be killed by a type of The big problem Collins gave Allison After many false starts, a ton of hard Mark Brynildsen—a postdoc now on I spent some time working on it, and antibiotics called aminoglycosides. when he arrived at BU was finding a way work sprinkled with serendipity led to a the faculty at Princeton. Allison gained reading through everything that I could find. You were already trying sugars at to kill bacteria that evade antibiotics by surprisingly simple solution: a little sugar sudden fame for discovering this simple, I came back and told Jim that I didn’t think this point? hunkering down into a dormant state and could give these dormant bacteria just inexpensive new weapon in science’s it was possible at this point. And Jim said, JC: Yes, bacteria are similar to kids. You essentially playing dead until the danger enough pep to turn a previously ineffective ongoing war against the microbes. In “Well, that’s great. It sounds like an excellent give them sugars and they can get hyped up. has passed. Known as “persisters,” these antibiotic into a killing machine. Allison November 2011, he won the $15,000 first project for you. Keep up the good work.” Kyle tried a range of different sugars and bacteria are thought to cause many hard- tried several combinations of antibiotics prize in the national Collegiate Inventors How long did it take for you to decide it other metabolites, and he looked at how they to-treat infections, including tuberculosis, and different sugars before the team found Competition. A month later, he landed on was impossible? affected the killing efficacy of different anti- which kills about a million people every one that wiped out persisters in both the the Forbes list of the nation’s 30 most-­ KA: It was probably two weeks or so. This biotics against the persisters. He found that year, staph infections that kill thousands, petri dish and in mice with chronic urinary promising scientists under 30 years old. was my first year as a graduate student, so the sugars were not helping at all with two and other chronic infections of the urinary tract infections. We sat down with Allison and Collins to I thought that I knew quite a bit. I’d read different classes of antibiotics—quinolones, tract, lungs, ears, and skin that antibiotics The findings were published in Nature talk about the potential of this new treat- everything I could, and I came back and just which include drugs like Cipro, and beta- can’t seem to touch. in May 2011, coauthored by Collins and ment and the mad hunt for its discovery. said, “It’s impossible, there’s not enough lactams, which include things like penicillin.

continued

26 Research at Boston University 2012 www.bu.edu/research 27 “ dialogue | Kyle Allison & Jim Collins

< Trials in mice have so far been success- ful; Allison and Collins are hoping the treatment will be in clinical trials within

a few years. < Jim Collins encouraged Allison to pursue his line of inquiry even after Allison was KA: Right. At first, I was using the best convinced it was impossible. antibiotics known to kill persisters but the sugars weren’t helping. Then, a paper came out that said persisters, although they are dormant, still make proteins, which was a really critical piece of information, because aminoglycoside antibiotics target protein synthesis, and yet they aren’t known to work against these dormant bacteria. It raises the with intravenous aminoglycosides for three question, why not? I thought, maybe this days. One group of mice just got the anti- metabolic stimulation could potentiate ami- biotics. Another received aminoglycosides noglycoside’s ability to kill the persisters. plus the sugar mannitol. And a third group received no treatment.

Before we get to your findings, can you Kyle Allison: give a quick primer on mannitol? JC: Mannitol is a sugar that is actually The most important sweeter in taste than glucose, but it’s not “ metabolized by the body. thing is that people KA: The selection of mannitol as our sugar was critical. We could have used glucose don’t think that they or fructose, but we knew that if we deliv- ered those intravenously, the sugar would can just take sugar be metabolized by the mouse’s body and wouldn’t reach the infection site. with their antibiotic ful of sugar with your medicine, you’re just years. So there is a pressing need here. If we thing to be validated by people beyond your So, what were the results? going to get a sugar high. You’re not going to can possibly address that problem with the immediate peers. It’s surprising, and it’s a and that’s the end of KA: We found that after the three days help clear up the infection. method that we developed, then we should great feeling. the story. of treatment and one day to let the mice be doing it. ” recover, we reduced the bacterial load on What’s next for this project? There’s a lot that can be done for persis- Are you going to be part of the start- the catheters significantly, by about an JC: So, BU is in the midst of spinning out a tent chronic infections, and I think that this up that develops this treatment for order of magnitude. We also reduced the company. It’s going to focus on the antibi- approach—where we try to understand on a patient care? spread of the infection to the kidneys, which otic platforms developed in our lab, includ- mechanistic level how the antibiotics work KA: Probably not. I’m interested in going I was a little bit shocked the first time I is a major complication associated with ing Kyle’s work. The name of that company and then fine-tune the treatments to get the the academic route. After I finish up ran that combination of sugar and amino- urinary tract infections. will be EnBiotix, and we’re working with drugs we already have to work better—may be here, I want to transition to working on glycosides on E. coli and staph bacteria, BU Technology Development to get behind a faster route to fighting these infections than tuberculosis.­ because it just wiped out the entire popula- What conclusions should we not jump this work and champion its translation into trying to develop brand-new antibiotics. My passion really is basic-level research. tion with an antibiotic that wasn’t known to to about this research? the clinic. Hopefully, we can get it into a Industry is a good place to be if you want work against persisters. KA: The most important thing is that clinical trial within a couple years via the Kyle, how have you adjusted to the to work on translating new ideas into Then you tried this treatment on mice? people don’t think that they can just take new start-up. attention that followed this discovery? practices, but academia seems to be the KA: Yes. These were mice that had urinary sugar with their antibiotic and that’s the KA: In the research phase, I’m starting KA: It’s been quite a transition. For years best place if you want to start at the very tract infections from biofilms on surgically end of the story. When the paper came out, work on the bacterial infection that is a of working on this problem, the only people beginning with brand-new ideas, coming up implanted catheters. We waited two days a lot of the press put it under the headline leading cause of death among people with I talked to about it were Jim and Mark with and developing them. You know that before starting treatment. We didn’t want “A Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Medicine cystic fibrosis. About 70,000 people world- Brynildsen. It was something that I thought a lot of them will fail, but eventually you’ll to give them treatment right away, because Go Down.” That’s a great hook, but that’s not wide have this disease, which causes mucus was very important. We worked hard on it, succeed. people don’t usually know immediately that what we’re suggesting. to build up in the lungs, creating a perfect and I thought we made great progress. But they have an infection and go to the doctor. We’re suggesting that we can take host environment for bacteria called it’s an entirely different thing when people Note: Kyle Allison graduated with his PhD in After two days, the mice received a targeted therapies to improve existing anti- Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Most people with whom you didn’t tell about the research bioengineering in May 2012. He is currently standard treatment for chronic urinary tract biotics and some of these can be very simple cystic fibrosis are ultimately killed by this come up to you and congratulate you and pursuing research at the Albert Einstein infection, which is twice-daily treatment and surprisingly cheap. If you take a spoon- pathogen. Their median life span is only 30 talk to you about it. It’s a very different ­College of Medicine in New York City.

28 Research at Boston University 2012 www.bu.edu/research 29 Ground-Truthing Paper Trails earlier arrival has caused a number of challenge: to locate, identify, and record helped by a NASA satellite more than Climate Change plant species to become locally extinct. For the flowering times of all 300 plant species 400 miles overhead carrying a remote example, some plant species that depend that Thoreau had observed. sensing instrument called the Moderate By cassandra nelson heavily on water for their survival are “After two years of attempting to repli- Resolution Imaging Spectroradiom- By Mark Dwortzan declining as warmer temperatures cause cate Thoreau’s data with limited success, eter (MODIS) that produces cloud-free wetlands to dry up earlier than before; the Abe and I eventually determined that we images of Earth’s surface. Guided by A pioneer in the study of climate change number of orchid species has declined from didn’t need to look at all 300 plant spe- Crystal Schaaf, a research professor of in New England, Primack chose Concord, 21 during Thoreau’s time to 7 today. cies, because several don’t flower every earth and environment, the survey team Throughout the United States, extreme weather Massachusetts, as a measuring stick for One of the most intensive investiga- year or during the spring,” says Primack. was able to exploit MODIS images of is becoming routine. According to the National Oceanic and Atmo- winter’s decline in the region. Or perhaps tions of the impact of climate change “We realized that it was the common vegetation in Concord over the past 10 Concord chose him. In 2003, a few months ever undertaken in the U.S., collecting spring wildflowers that would give us the years to significantly expand their cover- spheric Administration, the winter of 2010–2011 was one of the after he began gathering field data on key and analyzing multiple data sources to most relevant information, so we started age capability and home in on the timing snowiest in recent years. The summer of 2011 was the second warm- indicators of spring’s emergence in the track winter’s decline in Concord over the focusing on 43 wildflower species, such of leaf-out across Concord. est on record, and the winter of 2011–2012 was the fourth warmest. historic town, Primack learned of a previ- past century and a half was no easy task, as highbush blueberries, common to both As he continues to survey signs of ous effort conducted by Walden author particularly when it came to working with Thoreau’s time and ours.” spring’s arrival and document how vari- Then came the icing—or lack thereof—on the cake: last March, the and naturalist Henry David Thoreau. In Thoreau’s diaries. Perhaps the greatest challenge of all was ous species are responding to warming average temperature was 51.1 degrees Fahrenheit, a whopping 8.6 daily diary entries written in the 1850s, “When we obtained a copy of Thoreau’s to get the project funded. temperatures in Thoreau’s hometown, degrees above normal. Thoreau kept ample notes on the arrival records in the fall of 2003, we knew right “When I applied for National Science Primack plans to increase his efforts to times of some of the exact same indicators away that it was a gold mine, but like any Foundation grants in 2003, I didn’t get disseminate his findings and their impli- While natural weather patterns could be to blame for these of winter’s end: the formation of leaves, or gold mine, it was challenging to figure out funding, and several reviewers said that cations to media and educational outlets. developments, the recent proliferation of extreme weather is an “leaf-out”; the budding of flowers; and the what to do with it,” says Primack. “We had the proposed project wasn’t feasible and One thing that could make his audiences expected outcome of global warming, which scientists have linked appearance of migratory birds. to learn to decipher his handwriting and was too ambitious,” Primack recalls. more receptive to his message is their Comparing data found in Thoreau’s work out the modern names for some of “The second time I applied, reviewers own experiences of last winter’s early to the combustion of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas. notebooks and other historical written the plant species he identified that go by remained skeptical, but the NSF said the departure. As he puts it, the New England Through field and satellite observations, statistical modeling, and and photographic records against modern different names today.” project was innovative and funded it any- springs of 2010 (the earliest on record) advanced data analysis, Boston University researchers are uncover- ground and satellite observations of As Primack, his former graduate stu- way at a reduced level. Since then, as we and 2012 were “off-the-charts early.” Concord taken between 2003 and 2011, dent Abe Miller-Rushing (now a scientist began collecting and analyzing additional ing compelling evidence of global climate change—early warning Primack and collaborating researchers at Acadia National Park), and numerous historical data related to climate change, learn more signs that raise red flags about the future of the planet. determined that, on average, leaf-out is BU undergraduates began walking around NSF grants have funded the project in go.bu.edu/research/climate occurring 17 days earlier and plants are Concord two to three days per week in full and without delay.” flowering 10 days earlier. Migratory birds, 2003, they faced an even more daunting As that funding came in, Primack was apparently far less impacted by spring’s alitis. A decline in frogs, salamanders, earlier arrival, are appearing at around the and toads. Fewer varieties of wildflow- same time as when Thoreau first tracked Tracking ers, butterflies, and birds. As Professor A  richard Primack and former Winter’s them in the 1850s. The research team graduate student Abe Miller- of Biology Richard Primack sees it, the reported these findings in the February Rushing gathered spring Decline ecological effects of at least one con- wildflowers at Walden Pond 2012 issue of BioScience. in Concord, Massachusetts. sequence of global warming—shorter, Citing global climate change and regional B, C Working at the Concord Free milder winters—are already evident in urbanization (Boston’s densely built ncreased mosquito Public Library in Concord, New England, and in coming decades environment absorbs more of the sun’s heat Massachusetts, Primack populations and could become even more pronounced, than the forests it replaced) as the primary compared the original diary human cases of potentially leading to the collapse of and journals of Alfred Hos- I culprits, Primack believes that spring’s mer (a Concord shopkeeper eastern equine enceph- entire ecosystems. who recorded first flowering dates of more than 700 local species from 1888 to 1902) with reproductions of Thoreau’s records. D Richard Primack at his Bos- ton Area Climate Experiment (BACE) lab in Waltham, Massachusetts.

A B C D

30 Research at Boston University 2012 www.bu.edu/research 31 In 1997, before a meeting with government officials to verify estimates of urbanization, Kaufmann met with one of his PhD students, Karen C. Seto, at a train station in an indus- Ground-Truthing Climate Change trial area in Guangzhou in southeastern China. Noting the overcast sky, Kaufmann observed, “It’s a cloudy day.” Seto replied, “No, it’s like this all the time; it’s the sulfur haze.”

the sun weakening or the cool- that if the drought-stricken regions do not levels of vegetation greenness before ing effect of sulfur aerosols. recover, carbon dioxide concentrations in and after each drought and mapped the Climate’s When you put all those factors No Doubt the atmosphere could rise, thus further resulting decrease in greenness, and then Smoking Gun together, a good climate model about warming the planet. corroborated their findings with other will show a hiatus in warming.” Drought “The Amazon forest is about 70 percent satellite data showing marked reductions Is global warming— Kaufmann’s next step was to of the area of the continental U.S. and is in rainfall in the exact same areas where and humanity’s show that by taking all relevant Threatened by clear- the largest undisturbed natural forest; greenness declined. responsibility for it— factors into account, the theory cutting and extreme it accounts for about 6 percent of the While Myneni and Xu’s findings were nothing more than of anthropogenic, or human- weather events in vegetated area on our planet and contains widely accepted by the scientific com- a hoax perpetrated impacted, climate change would recent years, the Ama- tremendous biodiversity. The drought of munity in 2011, Myneni’s analysis of the by a left-leaning scientific community? account for the pause in warm- zonian rainforest­ could become a tipping 2010 has stoked fears that once the forest 2005 drought provoked a much more After learning that the planet’s aver- ing between 1998 and 2008. point for the future of global climate is lost, it may not regenerate itself.” skeptical response when in 2009 he issued age surface temperature showed no Toward that end, he sought to change. Scientists Myneni, who pioneered the use of a controversial press release disputing significant increase between 1998 and demonstrate that a statisti- estimate that a total satellite data to monitor changes in the results of two groups of scientists. 2008, despite rising concentrations of cal model of global climate loss of the rainfor- vegetation from space, is quick to point The first group had used MODIS data to atmospheric carbon dioxide and other estimated with observations est canopy would out that both natural and man-made conclude that greenness levels had actu- greenhouse gases (GHGs), many climate before 1998 would replicate the result in the release influences are at play. The El Niño/ ally increased during the 2005 drought; change skeptics felt that they had found global temperatures that meteo- of about 100 billion Southern Oscillation (ENSO), a five-year the second were scientists in the field vindication for their position. rologists had recorded between tons of carbon dioxide climate pattern in the equatorial Pacific who, noting an uptick in sightings of dead 1999 and 2008. into the atmosphere, region, causes floods, droughts, and trees, reported just the opposite. Using he fact that the average global tem- At a climate science meeting significantly accelerating the pace of other extreme weather events in the area an updated version of the MODIS data, perature hadn’t budged in 10 years at the Massachusetts Institute change argues are important, could global warming. In the past decade, regardless of human activities. On the Myneni determined that the first scientific T had long puzzled scientists as well, of Technology, where an MIT physicist account for the lack of warming during two severe droughts, in 2005 and 2010, other hand, climate models indicate that group had made mistakes in their analysis including Robert Kaufmann, professor in described a new spectral technique to that decade.” have intensified concerns about the as the greenhouse effect intensifies, the and that greenness levels had decreased in the Department of Earth & Environment. analyze the impact of human activity on Kaufmann and colleagues published forest’s vulnerability to drought, leading Amazonian region will be subject to more 2005, but not significantly. When the far When an audience member raised the global temperature, he ran into a very their results in Proceedings of the National Professor of Earth & Environment Ranga frequent droughts. more severe drought occurred in 2010, he issue at a public lecture he gave on global well-respected econometrician from Har- Academy of Sciences in July 2011. Despite Myneni and graduate student Liang Xu “You could argue that the droughts and Xu pinpointed areas of clearly reduced climate change to senior citizens in New vard University, James Stock. Stock had to this scientific evidence that climate change to investigate. of 2005 and 2010 are part of the natural vegetation and rainfall. The results were Jersey, Kaufmann resolved to find out why. leave early, but on his way out, he turned to is indeed influenced by human activities, variability in climate,” says Myneni. “But unmistakable. Suspicious that something was counter- Kaufmann and said, “Contact me. We can conservative pundit Rush Limbaugh trashed pplying sophisticated analytical if you accept that our climate is already “People called the 2005 event a ‘once- balancing the warming effects of GHGs, do a lot better than this.” The two scien- the study. Hate mail to Kaufmann followed. techniques to satellite remote changing due to human activity, these in-a-century drought,’ but our data he pored over U.S. Department of Energy tists subsequently met and Kaufmann Undaunted, the climate scientist is now A sensing data of vegetation green- events could be an effect.” showed limited damage,” notes Myneni. data on global coal consumption, and soon became confident he could work with collaborating with another econometrician ness—a measure of the forest’s capacity to To obtain a clear picture of the impact “If that was a ‘once-in-a-century drought,’ found what appeared to be a smoking gun: Stock to develop a statistical model of the to model global climate change over the past absorb carbon dioxide from the atmo- of the two droughts on Amazonian then the 2010 event was the mother of all a 26 percent rise in global coal consump- global climate that they could apply to the 400,000 years. sphere and store it within its constituent vegetation, Myneni and Xu obtained droughts.” > tion between 1998 and 2008. problem at hand. “A lot of people have tried to raise trees—the researchers discovered good and processed daily images of Earth’s learn more Taking a closer look at the data, Working with Stock, a researcher from doubts about whether humans are respon- and bad news. While the drought of 2005 surface from the MODIS instrument on go.bu.edu/research/climate Kaufmann was astounded to discover the University of Turku in Finland, and sible for climate change,” says Kaufmann, had limited impact on the forest canopy, board a NASA satellite. They compared that during that same period, China then-BU PhD student Michael L. Mann, “but we found that there’s no scientific the far more dramatic sequel caused a had significantly increased its use of Kaufmann took the model and ran it for basis to doubt that humans are responsi- widespread, severe, and persistent decline coal-burning power plants, doubling the designated time period using data they ble for the rise in global temperature over in the greenness of vegetation throughout its coal consumption in only four years assembled on both anthropogenic factors, the past 150 years and the need to take the Amazon. (2003–2007). The plants filled the sky including GHGs and sulfur emissions, and action to address it.” In a paper appearing in Geophysical with sulfur dioxide particles, reflecting natural influences such as incoming solar Looking ahead, Kaufmann reports Research Letters in April 2011, Myneni, solar energy away from Earth and thereby radiation and El Niño and La Niña, cycli- some good and bad news. The positive is Xu, and collaborators from Brazil and cooling the ­atmosphere. cal warming and cooling patterns across that China now incorporates scrubbers in NASA reported that the 2010 drought “There was a tremendous increase in the Pacific Ocean. its coal-burning power plants to reduce resulted in record-low river levels and sulfur emissions and a slight waning in “We found that the observed tempera- sulfur emissions, raising expectations that a decline in greenness that spanned an solar activity, and those things offset to ture was well within the confidence range the atmosphere will become cleaner. How- area four times greater and more severe some degree the increased warming due of the forecast generated by our model,” ever, as GHG concentrations continue than in 2005. Moreover, 51 percent of all to greenhouse gases,” says Kaufmann, dis- says Kaufmann, who eventually obtained to rise, this “cleaner coal” may usher in a drought-stricken forest acreage showed paraging climate skeptics’ exclusive focus the same results with three other sta- period of rapid global warming. greenness declines in 2010 compared to on GHGs. “If you’re just focusing on green- tistical models. “Our model, based upon only 14 percent in 2005. Unlike in 2005, learn more house gases, all you see is those things statistical relations before 1998 and using go.bu.edu/research/climate those declines persisted following the end going up and up and up, but you don’t see the factors that anthropogenic climate of the dry season drought and return of rainfall to normal levels. Myneni warns

32 Research at Boston University 2012 Severe droughts inwww.bu.edu/research 2005 and 2010 may have caused irreparable 33 ­damage to the Amazonian rainforest. Donald Thea researches the causes Manual workers in hot climates have of childhood pneumonia in Asia been experiencing an unusually high Pioneering Global and Africa. incidence of kidney disease.

immersion programs often do not cater Health to the needs of U.S. medical students, she Education says. Sarfaty collaborated with a col- By maggie bucholt and Service league at Dartmouth Medical School to in Ecuador vet the programs. The six-week “Cachamsi is a well-run organiza- tion of great importance and providing Spanish ­immersion tion that gives back to the community in Many of the public health challenges Boston sufficient evidence that WHO would program for School thoughtful ways—many Spanish immer- University researchers engage on a daily basis occur thou- change its public guidelines,” Thea says. of Medicine (MED) sion programs charge students high fees, “In public health, that’s a grand slam; gov- students in Ecua- but there is no transparency where the sands of miles from campus. The University’s global initiative ernments around the world look to WHO dor’s Andean Highlands accomplishes money is going,” she says. Unraveling the to improve health in low-income countries around the world for technical guidance.” two goals. Five BU students are selected for the Mysteries of Thea conducted research in Pakistan— A portion of the students’ tuition program each year and receive a small a Public Health includes projects such as an evidence-based study of childhood where there is a highly developed com­ to the nonprofit Cacha Medical Span- scholarship to offset the cost. Students Emergency pneumonia that changed the World Health Organization’s guide- munity health system called the Lady ish Institute (Cachamsi) in Riobamba live with local families in the Cacha lines for treatment. A Spanish immersion program for School of Health Worker Programme—with children is funneled back into the community region, a cluster of indigenous villages Four years ago, Daniel under the age of five. The next step will be to construct medical centers, stock where farm families subsist on rice and Brooks, a School of Medicine students benefits local citizens and community health to train low-level health care workers to medicines and equipment, and provide meat, and local customs for treating ill- Public Health epidemi- care projects in Ecuador. In Nicaragua, researchers are seeking recognize symptoms and to instruct moth- emergency care for severely ill patients. ness include using mud or cow liver on ologist, had never been to Nicaragua. answers to a kidney disease epidemic affecting young workers. ers to administer oral antibiotics and bring And MED students learn Spanish, teach deep gashes. Since he began researching an epi- the children back if symptoms worsen. children in summer camp about healthy “It’s hard to step into a community and demic of chronic kidney disease, he has At the heart of these efforts is the Center for Global Health & Now Thea is researching the causes of practices, and shadow physicians—often effect change without ongoing reinforce- logged more than a dozen trips to this childhood pneumonia. He is the principal traveling to farms where parasite-free ment and financing,” Sarfaty says. “You Central American country as the pres- Development, where numerous research projects in Africa investigator in Zambia for the Pneumo- drinking water is unavailable. have to be humble. You’re getting more sure mounts to pinpoint the cause of and Asia contribute to the body of knowledge about HIV/AIDS, nia Etiology Research for Child Health than you’re giving.” the outbreak. malaria, and infant mortality. A new focus is rapid urbanization (PERCH), a seven-nation study in Asia t’s an opportunity for students to Students understand that their first med- and Africa coordinated by Johns Hopkins see how difficult it is to prac- ical training will likely be in an area where e’re not responding to a in India and its impact on public health. To support the complex University and funded by the Bill & Melinda “I tice in a poor, rural community Spanish is the first or second language spo- research-driven question,” strategic and operational issues involved with international Gates Foundation. BU was selected to where there are few resources,” says ken, and being able to communicate with “W says Brooks, the principal research, education, and community service, the University enroll children in Zambia, where it has 15 Suzanne C. Sarfaty, assistant dean for patients is a top priority. “Learning Spanish investigator for the study coordinated existing research projects. Thea has con- academic affairs and director of Interna- is worthwhile,” says Sarfaty, who speaks through the World Bank’s Office of the established the Global Programs Office and is encouraging cross- ducted studies on Zambian communities’ tional Health Programs at BU School of from experience. A 1988 MED graduate, Compliance Advisor/Ombudsman (CAO), disciplinary collaborations to address major global challenges. management of fever, malaria in pregnancy, Medicine, who discovered the program six she spent time in Chile as a student; she the governing body of the World Bank’s and determinants of child sexual abuse. years ago. “You have to dedicate a lot more practices at an East Boston health center private sector lenders. “This is an urgent Thea refers to PERCH as “a big-iron” time and energy to make things work. It’s where she uses her Spanish. “It’s hard to public health emergency.” landmark study, meaning that highly a good lesson.” deliver effective health care if you don’t The economic and social repercus- principal investigator on a U.S. Agency sophisticated methods and techniques Sarfaty met Jorge Duchicela, founder speak the language.” sions are huge: the disease hits primarily for International Development-funded are employed to ask and hopefully answer of the nonprofit and director of the younger men working in various READ THE Full STORY the challenge project demonstrating that children specific questions, the foremost being integrated rural training track at the go.bu.edu/research/health industries, leaving families in need of of childhood with severe pneumonia can be treated what exactly causes pneumonia in chil- University of Texas Medical Branch, at assistance. Brooks became involved in the pneumonia effectively in a community-based pro- dren in developing countries. Pneumonia a global medical conference. Spanish study after former employees of Ingenio gram with oral amoxicillin rather than can be caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi, San Antonio (ISA), a sugar producer that Each year, 1.9 million in hospitals with intravenous drugs. and parasites; in the majority of childhood received a loan from the World Bank, children die from Often cost, distance, lack of transporta- cases in the developing world it’s bacteria. filed a complaint to the CAO. ISA employs Suzanne Sarfaty helps medical pneumonia. That tion, and other factors prevent children “In some ways, pneumonia is an orphan school students prepare to practice thousands of workers in the states of is the equivalent from ever reaching hospitals. disease,” he says. “In comparison to HIV medicine on a global scale. León and Chinandega. The former work- of eight 747 jets packed with children The results of the study were pub- and malaria, more children die from pneu- ers blame the company—in particular, crashing every day. lished in The Lancet medical journal, and monia, yet the world pays less attention to agricultural chemicals—for the outbreak. prompted the World Health Organization it. It’s amazing the amount of money and It is a sensitive, complex situation that is onald M. Thea, a professor (WHO) to change its guidelines—closely press that malaria and HIV have received. highly political in nature. of international health who watched by health ministries worldwide— It far outstrips the burden of those dis- “Our first research report found no Dconducts clinical and epidemio- to include oral antibiotics. This was eases compared with pneumonia.” evidence that agrichemicals are caus- logical research on infectious disease, is a huge coup in Thea’s crusade to help ing chronic kidney disease here,” says READ THE Full STORY out to reform the treatment of child- reverse the tide of childhood deaths. go.bu.edu/research/health Brooks, who leads a team of epidemiolo- hood pneumonia one step at a time, “It’s extremely gratifying to spend a gists; nephrologists; and occupational, and he is succeeding. Thea was the decade addressing a public health ques- environmental health, and preventive

34 Research at Boston University 2012 www.bu.edu/research 35 Pioneering Global Health Project SEARCH’s support for education has made a difference in combating HIV/ AIDS in impoverished communities.

medicine experts. Former workers met around the world, the Toolkit Jonathon L. Simon, Robert A. Knox makeup of the script to how audiences this conclusion with disbelief, and heated is essential in supporting the Professor, founding director of the should be seated.” community meetings followed. Public “exciting work of BU faculty center, and chair of the School of Public Setting the During the performances, the facilita- education regarding the research process so that the University can Health’s Department of International Stage for tor, a local physician with a degree in is an integral part of the study. continue to be successful.” Health, oversees numerous research Public Health public health, interacted with the audi- Brooks found that this is not a small- projects, including the 25 BU activi- ence, discussing hand washing, cleaning scale epidemic; it affects manual workers he Toolkit is a living ties under way for Project SEARCH Parades. Music. food-preparation areas, and treating in hot climates from Mexico to Costa Rica, document that offers (Supporting Evaluation and Research Contests and prizes. water and waste-disposal holes. After and even Sri Lanka, India, and Egypt. T accessible material on a to Combat HIV/AIDS), funded through An absorbing each episode, de Quadros helped to guide In developed countries, chronic kidney broad range of topics. The website the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for 12-episode stage drama about two the post-performance discussion process; disease is typically caused by diabetes or and downloadable PDF offer AIDS Relief. Project SEARCH evaluates families in a fictional shantytown in he assisted the artists and scientists in hypertension, but this pattern does not information to help researchers the quality and effectiveness of AIDS Lima, Peru, that was similar to the assessing the videotaped performance bear out with this epidemic. The char- establish permanent programs prevention, care, and treatment. communities where the performances and audience responses. acteristics of the work environment are overseas, pay staff, follow regula- “We found that direct community were held. Theater for Health, pio- “One of the challenges was to figure out leading researchers to hypothesize that tory procedures, and observe support in education and nutrition was neered by Arts for Behavior Change whether it was working,” says de Quadros. the disease has to do with heat stress. other considerations when making a difference,” says Simon, but (ABC), educates people about disease “Using the arts to change behavior has ISA addressed the concern by shortening traveling abroad. It also offers “we’re having a hard time showing results prevention and household cleanliness been shown to be viable. We are engaged in the workday and introducing more water essential advice on health and for psycho-social intervention.” through theatrical performances that productive discussions on replicating this breaks, but more research is needed. safety matters for faculty, staff, Also under way is a new body of work keep adults and youngsters coming program in other parts of the world.” > “We’re trying to broaden the funding and students. focusing on rapid urbanization, following back for more. Scientifically measured The Toolkit is a critical component of READ THE Full STORY to pursue different causes, but the one “We are a large, complex the Global Urban Health Summit the cen- outcomes demonstrate the effective- go.bu.edu/research/health we are giving priority to has to do with institution,” says Wang. “Every school these conversations. ter hosted in 2011. The summit brought ness of this pilot program in addressing working in a hot climate: insufficient and college at the University is engaged in “We don’t have all the answers or know together brilliant minds to brainstorm public health issues. hydration, likely acting with other factors global activities, which means that there all the regulatory concerns by country, ways to collaborate on disease prevention Participants in the Arts for Behavior Change Pro- we do not yet know,” says Brooks, who is are a lot of academic and operations issues city, and region,” he says. “No one does. But and treatment and to expand health care y job was to assist in the gram used theater to demonstrate strategies for we’ll pull together to find out what we need disease prevention and hygiene in underserved optimistic about obtaining grant support to think about. Our Global Programs team for poor people in city slums; urban popu- arts methodology and South American communities. to continue the research program. “It’s works hard to make operating abroad to know and work through the issues.” lations are widely expected to grow to 70 “M process,” says André de been three years of thinking about it every as simple and easy as possible, and the READ THE Full STORY percent of the world population by 2050. Quadros, professor of music at the Col- day. There’s always a deadline. It’s a long, Toolkit is a great starting resource. It is go.bu.edu/research/health Collaborating with the International lege of Fine Arts and one of the team wearing process, full of highs and lows. not password protected and we have heard Clinical Epidemiology Network, Simon members involved in the partnership But it’s the project of a lifetime. I’m draw- that other institutions are replicating our is focusing on India’s Palwal district, led by the Clorox Company and Canyon ing on everything I’ve done before to make efforts.” located south of Delhi. Ranch Institute, a nonprofit organiza- this work and find the cause.” In addition to using a collaborative Leading The questions are many, the science- tion that advances health literacy. “Every approach, Wang has a knack for trouble- based answers, few. What happens to the question about the process is a major READ THE Full STORY the Way go.bu.edu/research/health shooting operational challenges. He has rice and wheat farmers as urban areas question,” says de Quadros, “from the spoken widely on these challenges, includ- Which global health spread into the countryside? Do they ing at annual meetings of the Consortium programs produce become the urban underclass or move of Universities for Global Health. the most bang for farther into rural regions? How do they A Toolkit “A big mandate is to help support the the U.S. development make those decisions? What are the health for Success exciting research and educational pro- assistance buck? concerns and psycho-social repercussions grams being conducted internationally by of a shift away from agriculture? How do The Global leaders and visionaries like Jon Simon,” valuating global health programs is you measure them? Operations Toolkit he says, referring to the director of BU’s an ongoing initiative at the Center “The social change will be more rapid (www.bu.edu/ Center for Global Health & Development. Efor Global Health & Development in the next 50 years than in the last 500 globalprograms/ “Global activities are being imple- (CGHD), a multidisciplinary research years,” says Simon. “These are profound global-toolkit) is mented at a rapid pace,” says Wang. One ­center that focuses on helping to solve and important questions in rapidly a primer for BU faculty and staff who such program, the Global Health Collab- critical health and social development developing countries. You need a cre- are currently operating or planning orative, has completed several projects in issues in poverty-stricken countries. ative, flexible research design to capture research, educational, or community Lesotho and Vietnam aimed at improving The center has more than 90 employees this dynamic, and that’s what we’re hop- service programs abroad. It was family medicine. engaged in research activities in 14 coun- ing to develop.” one of the first projects for a team Since December 2009, when he was tries in Asia and Africa. Annual research READ THE Full STORY spearheaded by Willis Wang, the first appointed to his current senior expenditures are about $10 million, and go.bu.edu/research/health University’s first vice president and leadership role, Wang has made it his top the center has a committed pipeline of associate provost for Global Programs priority to support the University’s efforts $25 million in grants from organiza- as well as deputy general counsel. to increase its global engagement by work- tions like USAID, the Centers for Disease Wang says that with over 400 inter- ing with faculty and staff on academic, Control and Prevention, and the Bill & national activities taking place operational, and strategic considerations. Melinda Gates Foundation.

36 Research at Boston University 2012 www.bu.edu/research 37 get these and other expanded snapshots * Snapshots go.bu.edu/research/snapshots

Two new associate provosts named Fine Print “I teach a course at BU on digital printmaking because I’m inter- by John O’Rourke by Sheryl Flatow ested in the digital print as a fine art print. There are a lot of digital Elizabeth Bergmann Loizeaux, n a print titled Games of Chance: prints that aren’t exciting because formerly of the University of Straight Flush, by Deborah people don’t treat them as art Maryland, has been named the new I­Cornell, associate professor and objects; they ignore the subtleties associate provost for undergradu- chair of printmaking at the College and nuances—the elements that ate affairs, and Timothy Alan of Fine Arts, a satellite weather make a digital image into art.” Barbari, previously with George- map is positioned next to an town University, has been appointed to the new position of associate image of cellular organisms, with Top: Reverberation Garland Waller spoke with Collins’s provost for graduate affairs. a row of transparent playing cards Bottom: Games of Chance: Straight Flush friends and family, as well as legal Loizeaux will work closely with and child welfare experts in the across the lower edge. “These are making of No Way Out But One. not images you would necessarily the University’s schools and col- put together,” she says. “But their leges to promote collaboration and strengthen the undergraduate proximity in the work poses the Cinéma Vérité by Sheryl Flatow question of how these different academic and intellectual experi- things affect one another.” ence. Barbari’s ere’s a shocking statistic: exhausted every legal avenue one federal dime until judges take Cornell is in the vanguard of appointment artists who have embraced digital is part of close to 70 percent of all open to her, Collins did the only into account allegations or evidence technology in their work. “It’s a an effort to Hbattered women in this thing she could to ensure her of domestic violence,” says Waller. natural outgrowth of my interests strengthen country lose custody of their children’s safety: with their full “It’s a story that needs to be and the content of my work,” the quality children to their abusive spouse— cooperation, she kidnapped them. reported. What we have here is a she says. “I’ve been combining and stature who is more than likely abusing the Assistant Professor of Television systematic failure.” traditional and digital means for of BU’s PhD children as well. Communications Garland Waller is programs in decades because I’m interested It happened to Holly Collins hoping that No Way Out But One, Note: No Way Out But One has particular, so in how technology sees the world, in 1992. Her ex-husband was her feature-length documentary been shown on the Discovery that they are the influence of technology on granted full custody of their two about Collins and her family, will Channel, and Passion River the environment, and how all this competitive Elizabeth Bergmann Loizeaux children even though the court be a catalyst for change. The film Films will distribute the film. affects the way we filter reality.” with the very concluded that Holly had been exposes an unjust justice system There are many misconceptions best programs in the country. about digital work, and there are “Beth and Tim will serve critical abused. The judge decided that that leaves vulnerable women and roles at Boston University,” says the abuse left her unstable, mak- children at risk all over the country. artists who do not recognize it as a READ THE Full STORY legitimate art form. “Unless you’ve Jean Morrison, University provost ing her a danger to her children. “We need federal legislation that go.bu.edu/research/ tried it, you may not understand and chief academic officer. “They Eighteen months later, having says no family court can receive snapshots READ THE Full STORY will provide leadership in enhanc- how difficult it is, or how challeng- go.bu.edu/research/ ing the quality and stature of our ing to your creativity,” says Cornell. snapshots

Growing Honors rofessor of Law Tamar Frankel self-knowledge. We need to ask has spent years studying the ourselves if we share the traits by Rich Barlow, Leslie Friday, and Art Jahnke Portrait of a Pimportance of trust in our of people who tend to fall for Ponzi Scheme economy. Trust sustains invest- these schemes—optimistic, hat does $25 million pay for? At Boston Physics Professor Sheldon Glashow teaches courses in the Kilachand ment and entrepreneurship and risk-taking, trusting, and maybe Timothy Alan Barbari University’s Arvind and Chandan Nandlal Honors College. by Chris Berdik greases the machinery of the a little impressed by our own WKilachand Honors College, it can help marketplace. In her latest book, cleverness and sophistication. academic programs and interdis- finance students’ efforts to fight childhood pneumo- Established in 2010, the College welcomes BU’s The Ponzi Scheme Puzzle, Frankel If we do share these traits, ciplinary education and initiatives, nia in impoverished countries, or special lectures by ­highest-performing incoming freshmen who are enrolled examines the fine line between Frankel suggests, we don’t have to and they will work closely with the visiting faculty, or field trips to local cultural events. in the University’s schools and colleges, but take a quarter trust and gullibility. By studying admit our weaknesses to anyone. deans of our schools and colleges, That pledge to support Boston University’s honors of their credits through the select honors program. court records, Frankel discovered “Just take a deep breath and say, our faculty, and other leaders in the program was made by businessman and philan- The students are an unusual bunch, and they know it. hundreds of these cons that are ‘not now.’” We may not always be Office of the Provost to advance our thropist Rajen Kilachand (GSM’74). Most recently, “We kind of have our own community within the larger unmasked every year. able to spot the con artist, but we academic standing.” Kilachand’s gift was used to create the Arvind and BU community,” says Sarah Blair (CAS’14). “One thing Ponzi schemers, at heart, are can be honest enough with our- READ THE Full STORY Chandan Nandlal Kilachand Professorship. The that’s really notable about everyone is that they’re so pas- entrepreneurs and superb ties, often reassuring investors by selves to look before we leap. go.bu.edu/research/ academic chair was appointed to Charles Dellheim, sionate about what they like. And it’s really infectious.” salespeople. Frankel points out that issuing regular financial state- snapshots professor of history and founding director of the READ THE Full STORY READ THE Full STORY they are masters at mimicking ments. She argues that our main honors college. go.bu.edu/researchREAD THE Full STORY go.bu.edu/research/ go.bu.edu/research/snapshots legitimate investment opportuni- protection against such scams is snapshots

38 Research at Boston University 2012 www.bu.edu/research 3939 get these and other expanded snapshots go.bu.edu/research/snapshots * Snapshots continued

Sound Solutions generate the whale’s approximate location. Comparing overlapping the process of language acquisition by Jennifer Berglund results across an array of AARUs, or disorders like dyslexia or aphasia. the team can accurately pinpoint O’Connor’s Linguistic Field Meth- hales remain one of a whale’s location within tens of ods class teaches undergraduate marine biology’s most meters without synchronized clocks. and graduate students to prop- Welusive subjects. The The BU team then tackled the erly document a language—how unpredictability of their migratory machine itself. With a budget of to describe its grammar, build a patterns has long frustrated biolo- $2,000, Silver and a team of under- dictionary, and compile texts of its gists. Collecting data requires an graduates identified high-quality legends and myths. With support agile toolset, but one tool in particu- yet low-cost materials, and Valti- from a National Science Foundation lar offers biologists their best chance erra designed a small instrument grant, her hands-on course sends to track whales reliably: sound. with a memory card to record data. a few students into the field for a Pinpointing underwater objects Altogether, the new device weighs summer of intensive data collec- with sound is nothing new. Since just 30 pounds and can be easily tion. By studying the same language Horacio Frydman discovered that an iceberg sank the Titanic in 1912, dropped into the ocean with a few for several years—in this case, a Wolbachia bacteria in insects can lead sonar technology has been a main- Graduate student Robert Valtierra is sandbags to weigh it down. The to shorter life spans, cutting down on developing a cheap and easy-to-use diseases like dengue fever, which are stay in the scientific toolbox. But most expensive part? The $400 prevalent in older mosquitoes. way to track whale migration patterns. active sonar, which locates objects batteries. The device is USB com- by listening for echoes of emitted patible, so it can be programmed sound, is hazardous to whales and for infinite uses on any computer, An Unlikely Ally by Kevin Jiang can lead to beachings. and can measure anything with a For whale tracking, passive sonar Two types of devices dominate the perfectly synchronized. Without a sensor. “If you wanted to measure s a PhD student at Johns 70 percent of insects and several spread of dengue fever, transmit- is a better option. This technique is current passive sonar field: towed $2,000 clock, imperfect technol- gas flux in a forest, light penetra- Hopkins University, Horacio parasitic worm species worldwide. ted by older mosquitoes. Scientists imperfect and expensive, but a team arrays and autonomous acoustic ogy means inevitable drift. Time tion, sounds, or temperatures, AFrydman’s career was Depending on the host and bacterial also found that Wolbachia-infected from Associate Professor of Mechani- recording units (AARUs). Arrays, inaccuracies of mere milliseconds you could do all of this remotely,” Three Cameroonian elders listen to a presen- altered in a big way by a very small strain, effects of Wolbachia infec- mosquitoes are less likely to carry cal Engineering Glynn Holt’s physical while known for quality, only collect might position a whale in a different Valtierra says. tation from the field-workers. creature. In a routine experiment tion can range from pathogenic to diseases like malaria and West Nile, acoustics lab is meeting the challenge data when towed behind a boat, and nautical zip code. To confront these involving DNA staining of a fruit benign. The bacteria can drastically due to a heightened immune sys- to improve the technology. Working can weigh as much as a small car. difficulties, the BU/NOAA team Note: Kara Silver graduated in threatened Cameroonian tongue fly, Frydman noticed something reduce the life span of a host or tem in the presence of the bacteria. with a team of scientists from the AARUs record acoustical signals stayed true to their engineering 2012 and is now pursuing a grad- called Medumba—each new group unusual. Strange DNA seemed increase reproductive success. Frydman believes this work, National Oceanic and Atmospheric from the seafloor. They can log roots, first turning a whale call into a uate degree in marine science at of students builds upon the work to be accumulating outside the and his lab’s future research, will of previous classes. The combined Administration (NOAA) Northeast several months’ worth of data, but math problem. the University of Hawaii. nuclei of cells in a certain region reveal valuable insights into how Fisheries, PhD candidate Robert Valti- they are costly. With this equip- Calculating the difference efforts of four years of students have of the ovary. An experienced Wolbachia interact with the hosts, erra and senior Kara Silver are devel- ment, localization is accomplished between a direct call and its reflec- created a large body of knowledge in postdoctoral researcher told him including mosquitoes. Currently, oping a device suitable for a wider by comparing time signals between tion from the ocean’s surface, READ THE Full STORY a remarkably short time. it was most likely an experimental Frydman and his students are go.bu.edu/research/ variety of marine mammalogists. devices, requiring all clocks to be Valtierra developed an algorithm to In the field each summer, col- artifact. But he pushed on, and working to identify the molecular snapshots laboration between the villagers and soon found that not only was the mechanisms of these interactions. students is the key to driving the staining real, it was actually from “Our idea is to take what we find in project forward. “Four kids in Africa bacteria growing inside the fly cells flies—including signaling pathways for the first time would have every called Wolbachia. His fascination and genes—and then confirm if reason to feel isolated, lost, and with this serendipitous discovery they are also relevant in mosqui- confused,” explains Anna Belew, a ome linguists believe that by stuck with him. toes infected with Wolbachia,” Language on former graduate student in the pro- the end of this century, 90 Today, as an assistant profes- says Frydman. the Brink gram. “Throughout the trip, though, sor of biology and the associate Scientists around the world are percent of the world’s seven This mosquito ovary is from a strain from S we met person after person whose director of the Vector Transmit- developing Wolbachia-based strat- by Nathan Welton thousand languages will have the Culex genus. BU’s lab strain was kindness and generosity helped us vanished. “If we only have a hand- ted Infectious Diseases Core at established from mosquitoes collected in egies to control diseases. “Under- feel right at home.” Boston, the local vectors of West Nile virus ful of languages left in one hundred the National Emerging Infectious standing the fundamental biology Best of all, Belew says, her host and eastern equine encephalitis. years, linguistic theory will be Diseases Laboratories at BU, behind how Wolbachia interact family gave her a name identifying hobbled,” says Catherine O’Connor, Frydman works to reveal the with the host at the cellular and her gender, generation, and family: director of the Program in Applied unknown characteristics and The ability to thrive in and molecular levels is important for “I’ll proudly be Ncanko Anna for the Linguistics. Documenting dying mechanisms of these enigmatic manipulate insect populations improving these strategies and rest of my life.” languages leads us to a better bacteria—research that will help makes Wolbachia attractive to developing new ones,” he says, understanding of our capacity scientists understand new strate- scientists researching diseases “but there is a lot of basic research for them, she says. This research gies for preventing the spread of transmitted by them. Researchers that needs to be done.” might someday help us understand READ THE Full STORY diseases like malaria, West Nile, know that a specific strain of Wol- go.bu.edu/research/ and dengue fever. bachia isolated from fruit flies can READ THE Full STORY snapshots Wolbachia are remarkably prolific reduce the life span of mosquitoes go.bu.edu/research/ BU students returned to visit Cameroon in 2011. intracellular bacteria found in almost by half—enough to prevent the snapshots

40 Research at Boston University 2012 www.bu.edu/research 41 > Award-Winning Faculty

gLearet thesen more an adb ootherut Bu’ esxp researandedc highlights Mark Crovella (Computer Science) Malay Mazumder (Electrical & Scott Seider (Education) won author of a Top Ten Memoir for his go.bu.edu/research/highlightswww.bu.edu/research was named a Fellow of the Institute of Computer Engineering) was named a the American Educational Research book Cabin: Two Brothers, a Dream, and Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Fellow at the Institute of Electrical and Association (AERA) Moral Develop- Five Acres in Maine. Electronics Engineers. ment and Education Book Award Robert L. Devaney (Mathematics) Garland for his book Shelter: Where Harvard Sachiko Akiyama (Visual Arts) Engineering), Michael Smith (Bio- was elected President of the Math- James McCann (History) and Waller (Film & Meets the Homeless. received the Brother Thomas Fellow- medical Engineering), and Pamela ematical Association of America. James Winn (English) received Television) ship from the Boston Foundation and Templer (Biology) earned National John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Judith Simpson (Visual Arts) received an Indie Francisco Estrada-Belli (Ar- an Honorable Mention in the Margo Science Foundation Faculty Early Ca- Foundation Fellowships. earned the Exemplary Course Award Award, an chaeology) was named a National Hammerschlag Direct Carving Award. reer Development (CAREER) Awards. from Blackboard for her course Con- Accolade Award, Geographic Society Explorer. William temporary Issues in Art Education. a Telly Award, Daniel Alford (Medicine) was Ed Barker (Music) received the McKeen Sheldon Glashow, John Ilio- the Bare Bones honored as a White House Champion International Society of Bassists Spe- (Journalism) won Andrew Smith (Music) received poulos, and Luciano Maiani Film Festival selection for documen- of Change for his work in addiction cial Recognition Award for Orchestral the Gold Medal the International Music Prize for (Physics) were awarded the High tary, and the Distinguished Service medicine. Performance. for Nonfiction Excellence in Composition from the Energy and Particle Physics Prize by Award for Excellence in Film and from Florida Book National Academy of Music. Hatice Altug (Electrical & Com- Christine Baron (Education) the European Physical Society. Media from the Institute on Violence, Awards for his puter Engineering) was named one earned the American Association for Maria Spacagna (Music) won an Abuse, and Trauma for her documen- Kimberly book Mile Marker of Popular Science’s “Brilliant 10,” and State and Local History’s Leadership in Achievement Award for Art, Culture, tary No Way Out But One. Howard Zero. received a Presidential Early Career History Award of Merit. and Entertainment from the Italian (Education) won Jonathan Zatlin (History) was Award for Scientists and Engineers. Robert D. Oates (Medicine) was Consul General of Boston, Giuseppe Ethan Baxter (Earth & Environ- the Journal of awarded the Deutscher Akademisch- Christos Cassandras leads BU’s Division of Systems Engineering. appointed President of the New Pastorelli. Karen ment) was named a Distinguished Career er Austausch Dienst (DAAD) Prize for ­England Fertility Society. Antman Lecturer by the Mineralogical Society Development’s Alan Strahler (Earth & Environ- Distinguished Scholarship in German (Medicine) has of America. Japonica Brown-Saracino Jim Collins (Biomedical Engineer- Best Paper Sean Palfrey (Pediatrics and ment) earned the William T. Pecora and European Studies in the field of been elected to Margaret Beck (Mathematics), (Sociology) won the Best Book Award ing) was elected to the American Award for her Public Health) earned the Centers for Award from NASA and the U.S. economics. the Institute of article “Children’s Conceptions of Disease Control and Prevention Child- Department of the Interior. Tulika Bose (Physics), and Robin- from the Urban Affairs Association for Academy of Arts and Sciences and Mitchell Zuckoff (Journalism) Medicine of the Career Choice and Attainment: Model hood Immunization Champion Award. son Fulweiler (Earth & Environ- A Neighborhood That Never Changes: won the World Technology Award for received the Laurence L. & Thomas National Development.” ment) were awarded Sloan Research Gentrification, Social Preservation, and Biotechnology. Winship/PEN New England Award Academies. the Search for Authenticity. Fellowships from the Alfred P. Sloan Mary Collins (Social Work) Jim Johnson (History) earned Learn more about Bu’s research for his book Lost in Shangri-La: A Lorena Barba (Mechanical Engi- Foundation. Christos Cassandras (Electrical received a Fulbright Scholarship for the American Historical Associa- True Story of Survival, Adventure, and neering), Ayse Coskun (Electrical www.bu.edu/research Virginia Best (Speech, Language & Computer Engineering) earned the travel to Vietnam. tion’s George L. Mosse Award for the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of & Computer Engineering), Lucy & Hearing) received the National Institute of Electrical and Electronics his book Venice Incognito: Masks in World War II. Hutyra (Earth & Environment), Chris Connor (Anesthesiology the Serene Republic. Geoffrey Poister (Film & Televi- Organization for Hearing Research Engineers Control Systems Technol- Lou Ureneck (Journalism) was Ajay Joshi (Electrical & Computer and Biomedical Engineering) and sion) won a Telly Award for his Foundation Burt Evans Award. ogy Award. Michelle Johnson (Journalism) selected by Publishers Weekly as the Eddy Feliz (Anesthesiology) were documentary Jazz Dreams II. David Center (Pulmonary, Allergy, selected for the Ellison C. Pierce received the Barry Bingham Sr. Fellow- Sleep & Critical Care Medicine) was Award for the Best Scientific Exhibit ship from the Association of Opinion Maria Restrepo-Toro (Psychol- awarded the Trudeau Medal from the in Patient Safety from the Anesthesia Journalists Foundation. ogy) received the U.S. Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association LeRoy American Thoracic Society. Patient Safety Foundation. Sam Kauffmann (Film & Televi- Spaniol Educator Award. Suzanne Chapin (Education) and Kristen Coogan (Visual Arts) sion) won an Award of Merit from the Catherine O’Connor (Education) received an AIGA Best of New Best Shorts Competition, an “Indie Joshua Rifkin (Music) and the received a Golden Lamp Award from England Award. Award” from the Indie Fest Best, and a Dutch vocal ensemble Cappella the Association of Educational Publish- Best Cinematography Award at the 15 Pratensis won a Diapason d’Or from Deborah ers for their book with 2012 PhD Nancy Minutes of Fame Film Festival for his the editors of Diapason magazine in Cornell Anderson, Classroom Discussions: Seeing short film Where’s the Blood Money? France for their recording of Vivat Leo! (Visual Arts) Math Discourse in Action. Chapin was won the Grand Eric Kolaczyk (Mathematics) was Caryl Rivers (Journalism) was also awarded the National Association Prize from the inducted as a Fellow of the American awarded a Casey Medal for Meritori- for Gifted Children (NAGC) Cur- Los Angeles Statistical Association. ous Journalism for her book The Truth riculum Award for What’s the ME in About Girls and Boys: Confronting Toxic Center for Digital Nancy Kopell (Mathematics) was Measurement All About? Stereotypes About Our Children. Art International elected as an Honorary Member of Arianne Chernock (History) won Juried ­Competition. the London Mathematical Society. Richard Saitz (Medicine and the John Ben Snow Prize of the North Kathleen Corriveau (Education), Epidemiology) received the R. Brinkley American Conference on British Stud- Sanjay Krishnan (English) was Valentina Perissi (Medicine), Smithers Distinguished Scientist ies for her book Men and the Making of named a National Humanities Center Cara Stepp (Speech, Language & Lecture Award from the American Modern British Feminism. Fellow. Hearing and Biomedical Engineer- Society of Addiction Medicine. Thomas Kunz (Biology) received Dan Clemens ing), and James Uden (Classics) Jeffrey Samet (Medicine) was the Wildlife Society’s Outstanding (Astronomy) was received the Peter T. Paul Career elected President of the Board of Publication Award in the edited book elected as Chair Development Professorship Award. Directors of the American Board of of the Board of category for Ecological and Behavioral Bonnie Costello (English) earned Addiction Medicine. Directors for the Methods for the Study of Bats. an American Council of Learned Association of James Schmidt (History, Philoso- Bonnie Costello, professor of English, spent a year as a Fellow in Societies New York Public Library Fel- Lena Lundgren (Social Work) was Universities for phy, Political Science) was selected as the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public James Uden, assistant professor of Classical Studies, is one of four lowship and a New York Public Library selected as a Guest Researcher Fellow Research in a Bogliasco Fellow at the Liguria Study Library, where she has been working on a book called Pronoun recipients of the 2012 Peter Paul Professorship, an award established Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center by the Swedish National Institute for Astronomy. Center for the Arts & Humanities. Trouble: Auden and Others in the First Person Plural. for the career development of new faculty. for Scholars and Writers Fellowship. Social/Labor Market Research.

42 Research at Boston University 2012 www.bu.edu/research 43 Boston University at a Glance

Robert A. Brown, President Center for the Study of Communication & the Deaf Students Research at Boston University is published annually by the Office Vice President and Associate Provost for Research Andrei E. Ruckenstein Jean Morrison, University Provost and Center for the Study of Europe of the Provost to highlight research, scholarship, and creative activity in and across disciplines at Boston University, which 16,648 undergraduate; 14,175 graduate; Assistant Vice President for Research Initiatives chief Academic Officer Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy received $369 million in sponsored program awards in FY2012. 2,860 nondegree Cara Ellis McCarthy Karen H. Antman, Provost, Medical Campus Center of Excellence for Learning in Education, Opinions expressed do not represent the official view of science & Technology Boston University. Use of trade names implies no endorsement Faculty and Staff Editors Research Centers and Institutes Center of Excellence in Sickle Cell Disease by Boston University. For permission to reprint text from Lauren Eckenroth and Katherine Calver Hawkins Clinical Epidemiology Research & Training Unit 2,675 full-time faculty; 1,372 part-time faculty; Research at Boston University, contact the Office of the Provost African Presidential Archives & Research Center Designed and produced by Boston University Creative Services. Clinical & Translational Science Institute at 617-353-2230, [email protected], or One Silber Way, African Studies Center 5,643 full-time staff; 369 part-time staff Communication Research Center Boston, Massachusetts 02215. Alzheimer’s Disease Center Photography and Image Credits Danielsen Institute Center for the Study of Religion Member, Association of American Universities (AAU). American Schools of Oriental Research Campus Principal photography by Boston University Photography: & Psychology Vernon Doucette, Melody Komyerov, Cydney Scott, Kalman Zabarsky Amyloidosis Center Member, University Research Magazine Association (URMA). Editorial Institute 133 acres, 320 buildings; 486 classrooms; 2,024 Anna Howard Shaw Center Additional images:­ Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies laboratories; 11,432 total residence capacity © 2012 by the Trustees of Boston University. Archaeological Institute of America Photos courtesy of Christopher Maurer (pages 2–3) Evans Center for Interdisciplinary Biomedical All rights reserved. Arthritis Center Photo of Ajami manuscript courtesy of Fallou Ngom (page 3) Research Computing Facilities Biomolecular Engineering Research Center Photos courtesy of Rachel Eden Black (page 4) Framingham Heart Study For more information about research at Boston University, Cancer Research Center Research Computing visit www.bu.edu/research. Photo of wind farm from Fotolia, Laudanum (page 6) Fraunhofer Center for Manufacturing Innovation Cardiovascular Proteomics Center IBM Blue Gene/L supercomputer with 1,204 nodes Photos by Buzz Maxey, courtesy of Mitchell Zuckoff (pages 8, 12–13) Genome Science Institute Center for Adaptive Systems Linux cluster with 972 processor core Image of a page from Margaret Hastings’s diary courtesy of the Harold Goodglass Aphasia Research Center Center for Addictions Research & Services Tioga County Historical Society (page 10) Health & Disability Research Institute Center for Aging & Disability Education & Research Specialized High-Performance Computer Historical photos courtesy of Earl Walter (page 11) Health Policy Institute Center for Anxiety & Related Disorders Laboratories Images courtesy of Merav Opher (page 17) Hearing Research Center Center for Biodynamics Deep Vision Display Wall Photo of Martian atmosphere from NASA Images, courtesy of Paul Withers (page 17) Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center Center for Biomedical Imaging Computer Graphics Laboratory Photo of solar flare from NASA Images, courtesy of Jeffrey Hughes (page 18) Human Resources Policy Institute Center for Character & Social Responsibility LIVE: Laboratory for Virtual Environments Photo of the Discovery Channel Telescope by Mike Beckage/Lowell Observatory, Institute for American Political History Center for Chemical Methodology & courtesy of Thomas Vitron/Lowell Observatory (page 19) Institute for Astrophysical Research Library Development High-Performance Networking Image courtesy of Elizabeth Blanton (page 19) Institute for Economic Development Center for Computational Neuroscience Fiber Optic Metro Ring interconnecting Photos 1 and 2 of cells by Laertis Ikonomou, courtesy of Darrell Kotton (page 22) Institute for Global Work & Neural Technology boston University, Harvard, and MIT Photo 3 of liver cells by Andrew Wilson (page 22) Institute for Leading in a Dynamic Economy Center for Computational Science Northern Crossroads (NoX) Photos by Richard Howard, courtesy of Richard Primack (pages 30–31) Institute for Nonprofit Management & Leadership Center for Ecology & Conservation Biology Internet2 ION Photo by Karen C. Seto, courtesy of Robert Kaufmann (page 32) Institute for Philosophy & Religion Center for Energy & Environmental Studies ESnet Photo from iStockphoto (page 33) Institute for Technology Entrepreneurship Center for Enhancing Activity & Participation Photo by Goran Tomasevic/Reuters/licensed by Corbis (page 34) & Commercialization among Persons with Arthritis Computing Labs Photo of lettuce pickers by Charles O’Rear, licensed by Wikimedia Commons (page 35) Institute for the Advancement of the Social Center for Finance, Law & Policy UNIX, Windows, and Macintosh labs Photo of schoolchildren licensed by Wikimedia Commons (page 36) Sciences Center for Global Christianity & Mission Photos of performance in Lima, Peru, courtesy of André de Quadros (page 37) Institute for the Classical Tradition Center for Global Health & Development Libraries Images courtesy of Deborah Cornell (page 38) Institute for the Study of Muslim Societies Center for Information & Systems Engineering Illustration by Jordi Elias/Illustration Works/Corbis (page 38) & Civilizations 24 libraries and special collections; 3 million vol- Center for Integrated Space Weather Modeling Photo courtesy of Garland Waller (page 39) Institute of Jewish Law umes; 62,218 periodicals; 4.8 million microform Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Photo courtesy of Glynn Holt (page 40) Institute on Culture, Religion & World Affairs units environmental Exposures & Health Photos of Cameroon fieldwork courtesy of Catherine O’Connor (pages 40–41) International Center for East Asian Center for International Relations Photos of fly and mosquito ovary courtesy of Horacio Frydman (page 41) archaeology & Cultural History Research Center for Memory & Brain International History Institute Center for Molecular Discovery Sponsored Program Awards FY2012: Memory Disorders Research Center Center for Nanoscience & Nanobiotechnology $369 million National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories Center for Neurorehabilitation NeuroMuscular Research Center Boston University’s policies provide for equal opportunity and affirmative action Center for Neuroscience Financial Resources in employment and admission to all programs of the University. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer- Center for Philosophy & History of Science range Future Endowment: $1.19 billion Center for Polymer Studies In keeping with BU’s commitment to sustainability, this publication is printed Parkinson’s Disease & Movement Disorders Total assets: $4.3 billion Center for Practical Theology on FSC-certified paper containing 10% postconsumer waste. Center Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation Partners in Health & Housing Prevention Center for Regenerative Medicine research Center enrollment, staffing, and facilities figures as Center for Reliable Information Systems & Photonics Center of Fall 2011. cyber Security Prevention Research Center Financial figures as of June 30, 2012. Center for Remote Sensing Pulmonary Center Center for Research to Evaluate & Eliminate Rafik B. Hariri Institute for Computing and dental Disparities computational Science & Engineering Center for Science & Medical Journalism Slone Epidemiology Center Center for Sexual Medicine Smart Lighting Engineering Research Center Center for Space Physics Superfund Basic Research Program Center for Subsurface Sensing & Imaging Systems Tanglewood Institute Center for the Humanities Whitaker Cardiovascular Institute Center for the Study of Asia Women’s Health Interdisciplinary Research Center

44 Research at Boston University 2012 Nonprofit U.S. Postage Paid Boston MA Permit No. 1839 Office of the Provost

One Silber Way Boston, Massachusetts 02215 www.bu.edu/research

reshaping the solar system

PAGE 14

Assistant Professor of Astronomy Merav Opher is one of several BU researchers tackling the mysteries of the universe.