Faculty
Hortensia Amaro
Bouve College of Health Sciences
Research Area:
Interests: Long-distance cycling, teaching Yoga, Latin dance
For Dr. Hortensia Amaro, Distinguished Professor at Bouve College of Health Sciences, research is a means to reach out and make a tangible difference in the lives of people struggling with substance abuse and mental illness. Her research focuses on the epidemiology of addiction, mental health and HIV, and allows her to develop more effective prevention and treatment for patients. Dr. Amaro has created clinical programs within Boston, including an outpatient program for women with a history of abuse, trauma, and addiction that has been helping women and their families for the past 18 years. Her work is not just based in a classroom or research laboratory, but is, as she says, “about working on the ground, in real-life settings, developing programs from scratch for real-life communities.”
Dr. Amaro serves as the Director of the Institute of Urban Health Research (IUHR) and works with the 10 to 12 graduate students that IUHR funds each year. She assists the graduates, whose tuition is often covered and who are paid for their 20 hours of research each week, in helping to learn valuable research skills, data coding and analysis, report preparations, and grant writing. This close collaboration helps to develop a number of treatment approaches, making it easier to reach out to troubled individuals and “help them to heal, break self-destructive patterns, and put their lives back together.” Dr. Amaro says, “I really enjoy being at the Northeastern campus. It gives me more day-to-day contact with the graduate students. There is a real sense of campus life.”
Amilcar Antonio Barreto
Arts & Sciences
Research Area: Comparative politics, nationalism and ethnic politics, Latino politics in the U.S., international law and political science methodology
Interests: All different kinds of music from classical to disco, reading and writing
Dr. Amilcar Barreto, Associate Professor professor in the College of Arts and Sciences, has focused his research at Northeastern on comparative politics as well as nationalism and ethnicity. He has been teaching at the University since 1996 and has received two teaching excellence awards in the Department of Political Science during that time. He has published three books in the area of political science and also holds a Visiting Fellowship at Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Be’er Sheva, Israel.
Barreto describes the political science program at Northeastern as one that, "offers a nice blend of both theory and applied science." He also holds his colleagues in high esteem and enjoys the different perspectives that they offer noting that, "many members of the graduate faculty are very involved in inter-disciplinary research and that is a big plus for the students."
Timothy W. Bickmore
Computer & Information Science
Research Area: Natural language dialogue systems, health behavior informatics, relational agents
Timothy Bickmore, an assistant professor in the College of Computer and information sciences, aspires to better the lives of people through his research. "I get really jazzed about making systems that actually help people . . . if we can make even a small dent in the health and wellness issues in the US, I think that'll be a big deal."
Perhaps the most advanced system in Professor Bickmore's list of current research projects is developing what he calls "relational agents," computer programs that are designed to effectively - and affectively - help hospital patients recover. These programs interact with patients through animated figures and develop personal relationships with their patients. "We have a virtual discharge nurse," Bickmore states, "who is talking to patients in their hospital beds before they go home - reviewing all of their medications with them, self care procedures, follow-up appointments, and impending tests. So, when they go home they know what to do to take care of themselves.” Relational Agents emulate human emotions in their verbal and non-verbal capacity, providing comfort for patients in need.
Bickmore speaks highly of his research environment at Northeastern. The interdisciplinary nature of the Northeastern graduate program is a big part of this positive working atmosphere. "I have students working with me from computer science, of course, but also from the animation program, because we build these characters. We have other students from the exercise physiology department who design some of the intervention content and help test it out, run the studies. . . it's good to have a number of different disciplines and strong programs in this area to pull students from to participate in the work.”
The city of Boston also plays a large part in the creation of this environment. "I am embedded in medicine and health care . . . and there are how many med schools and hospitals within a few blocks of here?” The tightly woven community of Boston schools allows for a unique system of collaboration, research and ideas. "Most of the work I do is at Boston Medical Center, but Harvard Medical School is nearby . . . so I have lots of collaborators to pull from. It's a great place to be doing medical informatics research."
Professor Bickmore received his Ph.D. from MIT in 2003. He has taught and researched at a number of schools, including MIT and the Boston University School of Medicine. "I am interested in doing things that are theoretically interesting for my academic discipline but also in building things that help people . . . which is a big motivator for me. I think the students enjoy actually getting to go to the hospital and talking to doctors, nurses, and patients and build things that interface with them, doing things that are real and not just made up."
Christopher J. Bosso
Arts & Sciences
Research Area: U.S. politics and public policy, environmental and food policy, regulatory policy, science, technology and public policy
Interests: cooking, cultural life of Boston, getting outside, hiking
Christopher J. Bosso, Associate Dean at the School of Social Science, Public Affairs and Public Policy, spends his time at Northeastern teaching a graduate level course exploring issues at the forefront of society. The course, appropriately titled “Science, Technology and Public Policy,” examines issues such as how to deal with new technologies and the policies and regulations surrounding them. Bosso, while not in the classroom, also directs the Nanotechnology and Society Research Group. The Group’s primary agenda is to better understand what was learned from 50 to 60 years of regulations in the U.S. and the affect those regulations had on technology, in particular nanotechnology. The research team consists of three other Northeastern faculty members and five to six research assistants.
Dr. Bosso recently published Environment Inc., an award winning book examining why organizations born in social movements eventually become more professional with time. When asked to comment on his research Bosso explained that the work he is currently doing helps us learn from the past so that we can adjust public policy to better serve our communities in the future. He highly values the environment at Northeastern and believes that “the ability to integrate research and teaching on cutting edge issues is a reflection of the University’s relevance” and that “students definitely benefit because the university allows professors to be experimental.”
Latika Menon
Arts & Sciences
Research Area: Nanoscience, Nanotechnology
Interests: Yoga
Dr. Latika Menon, Assistant Professor of Physics, says that one of the best parts about being a faculty member at Northeastern is that she can carry out the many ideas she has. “It’s exciting!” she says. “I have the freedom to pursue my creativity and my research goals. There is no one stopping me.” Dr. Menon is currently working with five graduate students in her lab, a group she describes as “creative and innovative.” They work together to develop materials that measure only a few nanometers, but are useful in technology and will play a major role in future technological developments.
Dr. Menon has produced over 60 publications. Most recently, she and her lab submitted a paper about their work with aluminum dioxide. Dr. Menon’s most recent course is Introduction to Nanoscience and Nanotechnology.
Vladimir Novotny
Engineering
Research Area: Diffuse Pollution, Water Quality Management, Total Maximum Daily Loads, Restoration, Socio-economic Issues of Water Quality Abatement
Interests: Art, Music
Dr. Vladimir Novotny, Chair Professor and Director of the Center for Urban Environmental Studies, has researched issues of pollution abatement and water quality at Northeastern for the past six years. He describes Boston as a “very good laboratory for research,” which is evidenced by the way his work often draws on the Charles River and Stony Brook watershed. Dr. Novotny’s teaching areas include Hydrology and Watershed Management. His graduate students work with him on research and help to produce a technical report and publication. “By the time they finish,” Novotny says, “they are highly regarded in the profession.”
Dr. Novotny is a former Fulbright scholar and has received numerous honors for his contributions to the field of Urban Environmental Studies, particularly in the area of diffuse pollution. He holds an honorary chair professorship at the University of Beijing
Dr. Novotny has recently published Cities of the Future, which focuses on water quality and ecological sustainability in urban areas. Cities of the Future marks Dr. Novotny’s fourteenth publication.