Boston College

The BORAM 2018 meeting will take place on the beautiful campus of Boston College. Located approximately 6 miles west of downtown Boston, BC is home to over 14,000 students and is comprised of 8 schools and colleges.  The University was founded in 1863 as a means of providing a college education for the children of Irish-Catholic immigrants. Originally located in Boston, the college moved to its current location in 1913 where 4 academic buildings were erected over the next 10 years.  These buildings, and many that followed, were designed in English Collegiate Gothic style.  The Chemistry Department was first housed in one of the original four structures, Devlin Hall, until completion of the 109,000-square-foot Merkert Chemistry Center, which opened in the fall 1991.  Currently the Chemistry Department is home to 20 faculty, 116 doctoral students, 20 postdoctoral fellows and approximately 35 undergraduate students conducting research.

Boston

The capital of Massachusetts, Boston is one of the oldest cities in the United States. It is also a perfect blend of the historic and the contemporary.  The Boston National Historical Park contains many of the sites that played a prominent role in the country’s bid for independence. This includes the 2.5 mile long Freedom Trail which winds through downtown Boston incorporating 16 locations of historical significance.  Always innovative, Boston spearheaded a number of firsts throughout the second half of the 19th century and early 20th century: ether was used as the first anesthetic at Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital, the nation’s first subway system went into operation and Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone. The city contracted with Frederick Law Olmstead to beautify Boston with a network of urban parks stretching from the Boston Common to the Jamaica Plains neighborhood.  This project paved the way for the development of Fenway Park, the oldest ballpark in Major League Baseball.  In the 20th century, Boston continued its emergence as an innovation hub and world-class city.  The city has emerged in the 21st century as a leader in the life sciences.  The cities of Boston and Cambridge alone are home to over 250 biotech companies, the top 4 NIH-funded hospitals in the United States and 48 colleges and universities.