Dr. Ann Burgess may be a ground-breaking nurse who has, literally, changed the world — but she is known only to a select few.

“Mastermind: To Think Like a Killer,” Hulu’s three-part documentary profile streaming Thursday, will change that.

A Boston College School of Nursing professor, Burgess, 87, is acknowledged as the data analyst who developed modern serial killer profiling.

But her world-changing work with the FBI — a scientific way to track serial killer predators — was preceded in the 1970s by her ground-breaking studies with child and adolescent rape victims.

In a Zoom interview she was asked about her years of research seeing human nature at its worst.

“The worst aspects of the situation,” she said, “was the way people would treat the victim. That’s where the horror was — that people wouldn’t believe the children.

“That was a big thing back in those days. They thought there was something the child would do: Maybe the child was provocative. I can’t tell you the kinds of things that would be said about children. It was no wonder that many children never came forward.

“We learned so much at that particular time! And we had to get the information out. And it was not with just children, it was adolescents too who carried a bulk of the victimization that was going on. They always thought that these adolescents were provoking the attacks.”

That led to her first “very important” book, “Sexual Assault of Children and Adolescents,” written with three colleagues that showed how “it wasn’t like dealing with the adult victim. It spoke to the trauma aspect.”

From victims to perpetrators: Burgess, a lone woman in an overwhelmingly male environment, began working with the FBI who needed data to identify potential serial killers.

“I was brought in not necessarily to talk with suspects but to do the research to find out why this was going on. They were getting these cases where they couldn’t figure out why the victim was being murdered.

“As far as their accepting or not accepting me, they needed to learn — and they were a very bright group.”

After the FBI, a new area for her expertise appeared. “I began to get calls, especially on some homicide cases, to testify.  Getting into the courtroom was a whole new area” where her perspective became significant in high profile cases like the Menendez brothers’ homicides and a woman’s rape charges against Bill Cosby.

“It’s important to educate juries. That’s what I’m called in for: ‘Please tell the jury about this this plaintiff or this victim, to educate them.’ I’ve really moved from the lecture hall, if you will, into the courtroom.”

Hulu streams all 3 episodes of “Mastermind: To Think Like a Killer” on July 11