BC Research Day
Boston College celebrated interdisciplinary research and innovation, and the breadth of scholarship within the University community, at Boston College Research Day, held October 13 in Hayden Hall.
The daylong event, co-hosted by the Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society and the Office of the Vice Provost for Research, included talks by BC administrators, keynotes by Nobel Prize winner Moungi Bawendi and Science magazine Editor-in-Chief Holden Thorp, and faculty and student presentations.
In his welcoming remarks, Dunwei Wang, interim Seidner Family Executive Director of the Schiller Institute, noted that the event held special significance, serving as a prelude to the inauguration of BC’s new president, John T. Butler, S.J., which took place October 15-17.
Margaret A. and Thomas A. Vanderslice Professor of Chemistry Dunwei Wang, Interim Seidner Family Executive Director of the Schiller Institute.
“We look forward with great anticipation to Fr. Butler’s leadership and vision for the future,” said Wang, the Margaret A. and Thomas A. Vanderslice ’53 Chair.
“The spirit of discovery, innovation, and collaboration that brings us together today will undoubtedly play an important role in that future. Research Day is a celebration of discovery, but it’s also a celebration of community. It’s a chance to learn from one another, discover new connections, and imagine what we can accomplish together.”
Winston Provost and Dean of Faculties David Quigley noted that he had pitched the “Back to the Future” idea of a Research Day to Wang and Deluca Chair of Biology Thomas Chiles to “engage with the spirit of those advancing research and scholarship on campus,” similar to an event that had been organized during 2014-2016.
“This day is a way of marking this moment in the University’s and the institute’s history by linking with the spirit of the Inauguration Celebration,” said Quigley. “That sense of generative possibility—imagining the frontiers of research—is the hope, and that spirit is very much in play today.
“The work and value of the research university animate our vocational commitment to push on the frontiers of science, is what holds us together as an academic community. The question then is how do we chart a course at BC to emerge as an even stronger research university over the next few years? Doubling down on our commitment to research, to engaging with scholarship for the common good, has never been more important.”
BC School of Social Work Dean Gautam Yadama, Associate Professor of Economics and Schiller Institute core faculty member Edson Severnini, and Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences Yi Ming, a Schiller Institute professor of climate science and society, also were part of the leadership for Research Day.
“ Doubling down on our commitment to research, to engaging with scholarship for the common good, has never been more important. ”
Chiles introduced Bawendi, best known for his breakthrough research that made it possible to alter quantum dots according to size, allowing them to achieve predictable properties. This paved the way to the development of large-scale technological applications such as light-emitting diodes (LEDS), solar cells, photodetectors, photoconductors, lasers, and biomedical imaging.
“We are where we are today because of the curiosity and innovation, and the relentless progress of basic science over the last century,” said Bawendi. “If you look at any field of science, and you think about where we were 20 years ago, it’s unbelievable. As was noted earlier, basic science is under assault, but progress rests on basic science. If we don’t keep investing in curiosity-driven science, the pipeline of progress will run dry.”
Bawendi, the MIT Lester Wolfe Professor of Chemistry, outlined his team’s work on advances in the chemical production of high-quality quantum dots, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2023. He offered a simple and clear message for students: “Stay curious, keep learning, be flexible, don’t give up, and enjoy what you’re doing.”
Thorp, a professor of chemistry and medicine at George Washington University, encouraged those present not to despair about the political and social turmoil facing science nowadays.
“It’s easy to get down in the dumps about how people have lost confidence in science because we see people who don’t want to get vaccinated, and who still don’t think that climate change is real,” said Thorp. “But it’s a small portion of the American public who feel that way. Seventy-six percent of adults still have confidence in scientists to act in the best interest of the public.
“Attacks on science are being used as leverage to attack universities: 70 percent of Americans think that higher education is going in the wrong direction. If we don’t solve the problems facing higher education, science will continue to struggle. But my message to students is, keep science going, even when it’s difficult.”
Professor James P. Morken, the Louise and Jim Vanderslice and Family Chair in Chemistry, spoke on "Stereochemistry in Drug Development."
The range of research across disciplines at BC was evident in the faculty presentations by Associate Professor of Physics Qiong Ma, Louise and Jim Vanderslice and Family Professor of Chemistry James P. Morken, Connell School of Nursing Assistant Professor Patti Underwood, and BC School of Social Work Assistant Professor Ed-Dee Williams.
Student flash talks—featuring 19 undergraduate and graduate students—described their current research projects within two minutes or less. Each also held poster sessions within the building.
A closing panel discussion moderated by Chiles, “Implications of AI to Research and Teaching at BC and Beyond,” featured BC Law Professor Natalya Shnitser, the David and Pamela Donohue Faculty Fellow; Carroll School of Management Professor of Business Analytics Sam Ransbotham, the Peter F. Drucker Chair; and Augustus Long Professor of Education Marina Bers.