Dr. Aram V. Chobanian, School of Medicine dean since 1988, was named president ad interim by the Boston University Board of Trustees Friday following the announcement of president-elect Daniel S. Goldin’s withdrawal from his contract with the university.
Chobanian, a 74-year-old native of Pawtucket, R.I., has been part of the BU faculty for 40 years and is currently serving as a professor in the University Professors Program, provost of the Medical Campus and the John I. Sandson Distinguished Professor of Health Sciences. He received his A.B. degree from Brown University in 1951 and his M.D. from Harvard Medical School.
In an interview with The Daily Free Press on July 23, 2002, former Chancellor John Silber suggested Chobanian as a replacement when Jon Westling resigned as president, but said it would be difficult to replace him as dean.
‘I would suggest another person of great quality and that’s Dean Chobanian of the School of Medicine,’ Silber said. ‘But where would we find another dean of the School of Medicine as good as Chobanian? And also he’s on top of multi-million dollar research grants, and he wouldn’t be able to do that as president.’
Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) also congratulated Chobanian on his appointment in a statement released Friday.
‘I look forward to working with our new president as he assumes his new responsibilities,’ he said. ‘I have depended on him for the last 15 years on research and medical questions, and I look forward to working with him on all higher education issues in the years to come.’
Faculty Council Chair Herbert Voigt said he feels the university’s reputation has been damaged, but said he feels the Board of Trustees took the proper course of action in appointing Chobanian.
‘Yes, I think this is a black eye, but black eyes can heal and I think with Aram Chobanian, he’s a physician and it’s probably going to heal a lot faster,’ Voigt said.
MED Associate Dean John McCahan said Chobanian’s appointment will not hurt the school, although a new dean and provost must be appointed to replace him.
‘Every institution goes through change from time to time. Nobody likes to lose a good leader, so consequently it’s going to be a time of change for the school but none of us are going to be around forever,’ McCahan said.
Wilson S. Colucci, Chief of Cardiology at BUMC and professor of medicine and physiology, said he feels Chobanian is ‘extremely capable’ and called Chobanian a ‘man of very sound judgment and very strong principles.’
School of Management Dean Louis Lataif, who has worked with Chobanian as a dean for 12 years, said Chobanian’s leadership style will help him successfully run the university.
‘He’s very much quiet, very much a listener, very cerebral, so he absorbs and processes information extremely well,’ Lataif said. ‘There’s nothing not to like he’s just a marvelous man.’
Donald Marion, professor and Chair of Neurosurgery at MED and Chief of Neurosurgery at Boston Medical Center called Chobanian a ‘generous, easily accessible individual, who I can’t say enough good things about.’
BACKGROUND OF
BRILLIANCE
Chobanian has received numerous honors and awards including the first Lifetime Achievement Award in Hypertension from the American Heart Association in 1990, the Abbot Award from the American Society of Hypertension and the Edward Freis Award from the National High Blood Pressure Education Program. He was also co-recipient of the 1990 Modern Medicine Award with C. Everett Koop.
In addition to founding the Whitacker Cardiovascular Institute, Chobanian served as its director from 1973 to 1993. He also served as chairman of the Food and Drug Administration’s Cardiovascular and Renal Advisory Committee, chairman of the National Institutes of Health Joint National Committee on Hypertension Research and chairman of the American Heart Association’s Council on High Blood Pressure Research. He is currently a member of the Board of Trustees of Quincy Medical Center in Boston.
Chobanian is also a member on the Board of the New England Health Institute, the Association of American Physicians, the Massachusetts Medical Society and the Board of External Advisers of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.
Chobanian also serves as a Diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine.
He was also involved in the 2002 Index of the Massachusetts Innovation Economy, which studies the state’s economy and compares its performance to that of other states, according to the group’s website.
As an advisor partner of Flagship Ventures, Chobanian helps evaluate and sometimes found companies ‘in the life science, information technology and communications sectors’ for the venture capital firm.
Chobanian was also elected as a member of the European Academy of Sciences for ‘outstanding and lasting contributions to medical science and leadership in medical profession,’ according to the group’s website.
The author of more than 250 articles for medical journals, Chobanian has been a visiting professor at the Italian Hypertension Society, Danish Hypertension Society and Hong Kong University and was inducted into the Rhode Island Hall of Fame in 1992.
For the fiscal year 2001, Chobanian’s reported earnings were $479,395.
Staff writers Deirdre Fulton, Liz Goldberg, Patrick Gillooly, Mike Lipka, Tim Malcolm, Phoebe Sexton and John Tozzi contributed to this report.