Franco Cerrina, a Boston University engineering professor, was found dead in a lab at BU’s Photonics Center on Monday morning, the university reported yesterday. He was 62. Colin Riley, a BU spokesman, said in an e-mail this morning that the cause of death is not yet known. Police are not treating Cerrina’s death as a criminal matter, according to BU. Cerrina joined the faculty of BU in 2008 after spending 24 years on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He co-founded five companies, including NimbleGen Systems, Genetic Assemblies (merged with Codon Devices in 2006), Codon Devices, Biolitho, and Gen9, according to Nanowerk News. NimbleGen, a Madison, WI-based provider of DNA microarray technology, was sold to Basel, Switzerland-based Roche in 2007 for $272.5 million.
Author: Ryan McBride
Ryan is an award-winning business journalist who contributes to our life sciences and technology coverage. He was previously a staff writer for Mass High Tech, a Boston business and technology newspaper, where he and his colleagues won a national business journalism award from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers in 2008. In recent years, he has made regular TV appearances on New England Cable News.
Prior to MHT, Ryan covered the life sciences, technology, and energy sectors for Providence Business News. He graduated with honors from the University of Rhode Island in 2001 with a bachelor’s degree in communications. When he’s not chasing down news, Ryan enjoys mountain biking and skiing in his home state of Vermont.
View all posts by Ryan McBride
