When Boston University professor James J. Collins got a phone call last week telling him he’d be getting checks totaling $500,000, his first reaction was that it must be a prank.
But the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation named the biomedical engineering teacher and researcher one of 24 MacArthur Fellows on Sunday.
‘I was shocked,’ Collins said. ‘I actually asked if it was a hoax, but they assured me it was not and gave me a number I could call back to confirm it.’
For the next five years, Collins will get $25,000 every three months with no restrictions on how he can spend it. While he doesn’t yet have a plan for how to spend the half-million dollars, he said the award will have a big impact on his life and research.
‘I’m sure it’s going to change things in way I can’t even begin to imagine,’ Collins said. ‘It may open up some new doors.’
He said his work ‘translating theoretical ideas into practical insights and products’ seemed to intrigue the foundation, and an example of that research appeared in the British medical journal The Lancet on Saturday.
That report focused on his recent work developing insoles that improve balance for elderly people because the vibrations can help improve the way nerves work in the soles of their feet, even though they can’t feel the vibrations. While he plans to extend the research to benefit people who have diabetes or have suffered strokes, Collins said he hopes the insoles will be ready to start reducing elderly people’s falls in about 18 months.
‘We face a number of engineering challenges,’ he said. ‘The biggest one is developing a suitable power supply small enough that it’s easy to wear and walk around with.’
Gene and protein dynamics is the other main strand of Collins’ current research, which involves figuring out how networks link with biological systems discovering what genes control and then creating ways to toggle them on and off like a light switch.
‘It could lead to other novel classes of drugs to fight chronic infections and diseases,’ he said.
College of Engineering Dean David K. Campbell said Collins’ ‘extremely creative’ research starts with math concepts and applies them to real life.
‘It’s a full course intellectual dinner from soup to nuts,’ he said. ‘He takes ideas from physics and nonlinear dynamics and then applies them to real life biomedical and biological problems.’
Campbell described Collins as a ‘perfect choice’ for a MacArthur Fellowship and said it reflects tremendously on Collins, the biomedical engineering department and ENG.
‘The best news is the intellectual freedom it gives you to pursue any kind of crazy idea without having to wait to find someone else to fund it and do a grant proposal,’ Campbell said.
Collins is BU’s third faculty member to become a MacArthur Fellow, following Derek Walcott a poet, playwright and Nobel laureate recognized in 1981 and Nancy Kopell a mathematics professor recognized in 1990.
Kopell, who shares the title of co-director of BU’s Center for BioDynamics with Collins, said the fellowship changed her life but declined to specify how she spent the money.
‘It made me more willing to work on problems that were of higher risk and have the resources to help other people,’ she said.
She said she found out about Collins’ fellowship a few weeks before he did because the foundation needed her to find out where Collins would be on Sept. 29 so the foundation’s president could call him.
She deduced his whereabouts by asking about his schedule because of a party for the center, and said they are thinking about having another party to celebrate Collins’ accomplishment.
‘I can remember how overwhelmed I was,’ Kopell said. ‘It’ll take him a little while to get used to it. I’m sure he’ll do very good things with it.’
Collins said he remains ‘in a stunned state’ and takes pride in the recognition of both his research and teaching. The 38-year-old Newton resident is on sabbatical this semester to devote more time to his research but said he will teach a class on control theory in biodynamics next semester.
In 2000, the Metcalf Cup and Prize of $10,000 acknowledged Collins’ teaching in both ENG and the University Professors Program.
‘I was really proud of that award,’ he said. ‘I love teaching the students here at Boston University.’
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