Fostering Interdisciplinarity in
Research and Education:
NIMBioS and Beyond
Louis J. Gross
National Institute for Mathematical and Biological
Synthesis
Departments of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and
Mathematics
Supported by NSF Awards DEB-0219269, DMS-0211991, IIS0427471,EF-0832858
NIMBioS.org
Overview
• Interdisciplinarity
• NIMBioS Goals, Activities and some History
• Reports and Calls for Change
• Comments on Fostering Interdisciplinary
Collaboration
Interdisciplinary Research and Education:
What NIMBioS intends to
foster
What we’ve done at UT in
math/biology/CS/geography
What happens when two of
us get together
How we were educated
(from Jim Collins, NSF Associate Director)
Grand Challenges of Neuroscience
* How does the brain work and produce mental
activity? How does physical activity in the brain give
rise to thought, emotion, and behavior?
* How does the interplay of biology and experience
shape our brains and make us who we are today?
* How do we keep our brains healthy? How do we
protect, restore, or enhance the functioning of our
brains as we age?
Neuroscience is a multidisciplinary
enterprise including diverse fields of
biology, psychology, neurology,
chemistry, mathematics, physics,
engineering, computer science, and
more.
“Who among us has not wondered how it all works;
how the lump of our physical brain gives rise to
someone who can want, and love, and read poetry?”
• Foster new collaborative efforts to
investigate fundamental and applied
questions arising in biology using
appropriate mathematical and computational
methods
• Enhance the essential human capacity to
analyze complex biological questions and
develop necessary new mathematics
• Encourage broader public appreciation of
the unity of science and mathematics.
Department of
Homeland
Security
NIMBioS.org
General Methods
• Choosing fundamental problems that will benefit from
cross-disciplinary collaborations.
• Choosing applied problems of sufficient general
interest to be readily extended beyond an initial
region/ organism/ system.
• Building appropriate collaborations to address these
fundamental and applied problems.
• Developing education and outreach opportunities to
diversify participation in these collaborations at all
levels.
NIMBioS.org
Research Activities
•Working Groups on
Focused Topics
•Investigative Workshops
•Postdoctoral Fellowships
•Sabbatical Visitors
•Short-term Visitors
NIMBioS.org
NIMBioS Strategy
NIMBioS activities are community-driven.
We request suggestions from a broad array of
constituents.
Given the enormous potential breadth of scientific
areas across life sciences and mathematics in which
NIMBioS could be involved, prioritization of effort
needs to be made.
NIMBioS relies on requests from the community to
prioritize support, as evaluated through a formal
process utilizing the broad set of expertise of the
external Board of Advisors.
Our Leadership Team
Cynthia Peterson Graduate Education
Sergey
Gavrilets Scientific
Activities
Chris Welsh Deputy Director
Graham Hickling Partner Relations
Suzanne Lenhart Outreach, Education &
Diversity
OurStaff
Pam Bishop –
Program Evaluation
Coordinator
Michael Peek – IT
Manager
Jane Comiskey –
IT/Web Specialist
Eric Carr – HPC
Specialist
Toby Koosman–
Business Manager
Jennifer Thomas –
Travel and Logistics
Sarah Duncan –
Outreach/Education
Coordinator
Catherine Crawley –
Communications
Coordinator
New Faculty Associated with NIMBioS
Paul Armsworth
(EEB)
Vitaly Ganusov
(Microbiology)
Jaewook Joo
(Physics)
Brian O’Meara
(EEB)
NIMBioS search process involved 6 Colleges and 14 Departments home units were not specified in advance. Two searches underway
this year.
NIMBioS Postdocs
Folashade Agusto
(Math)
Yi Mao (Physical
Chemistry)
Erol Akcay (Biology)
Sharon Bewick
(Chemistry)
Will Godsoe
(Biology)
NIMBioS NSF Collaborative Centers
Goals for Graduate Education
• Foster development of new programs to educate
researchers who are:
– Mathematically competent
– Biologically knowledgeable
– Computational adept
– Possessing both mathematical and biological
intuition
Math
Ecology
Computer Science/ Ecology
Math
Math
Math/ Ecology
Math
Computer
Science
Physics
Computer
Science
Computer
Science
Math
Math/ Ecology
Ecology
Undergraduate Conference on the Interface
between Math and Biology – October 2009
One personal metric of success of these UBM programs was the fact that
in the talks, I really couldn't tell whether the student giving the
presentation was pursuing a biology or mathematics major. The students
seemed equally comfortable in presenting details in both areas.
The math/biology programs at UT
• Started with one faculty member (Tom Hallam) in late
1970’s and added three more over 20 years
• Developed 100-level math for biology courses
• Developed 2-year grad sequence and degree concentration
• Organized interdisciplinary seminar every semester for 30
years – with faculty from many different disciplines
• Built interdisciplinary institute (The Institute for
Environmental Modeling) with links to ORNL
• Used TIEM to foster collaborations and attract external
funds (no UT funds involved)
• Moved-in projects from other units as appropriate
Bottom line- one of the world’s leading programs
with over $14M in external funding over 15 years
– not counting NIMBioS
How the hell did we build this at UT?
• Started small but had a long-term vision of what
we wanted to be
• Got administrative support (this does not mean
funding) at departmental level
• Got buy-in from colleagues (didn’t step on their
toes – too much at least)
• Found some external resources (for both research
and educational initiatives)
• Built a community, shared resources and
collaborated towards potential new resources
• Educated appropriate administrators why this is
important
www.eds.com
Why Interdisciplinarity Matters
Make the United States the
most attractive setting in
which to study and perform
research so that we can
develop, recruit, and retain
the best and brightest
students, scientists and
engineers from within the
United States and
throughout the world (2007).
National Academies Board on Life
Sciences
A New Biology for
the 21st Century
National Research Council Committee on a
New Biology for the 21st Century: Ensuring the
United States Leads the Coming Biology
Revolution
Prepublication released September 2009
A moment of unique opportunity -Current research has brought biology to an inflection point
• Integration of subdisciplines within biology
• Cross-discipline integration: life science research by
physical, computational, earth scientists, engineers
• Technological advances enable biologists to collect data
unprecedented in quantity and quality
• Past investments providing value beyond expected
An opportunity for a New Biology with
impact at an unprecedented scale
The National New Biology Initiative
Setting big goals: address societal
problems
• Food
• Environment
• Energy
• Health
What is the
New Biology?
Biology
Bio2010:Transforming
Undergraduate Education for
Future Research Biologists
• Released September 2002 by National Research
Council, funded by NIH, HHMI
• Recommendations focus on interdisciplinary needs in
carrying out research in biology
• Explicit curricula suggested that enhance physics,
chemistry and quantitative training
• Backlash from some non-health science groups due
to perceived biomedical focus
Claudia Neuhauser HHMI Professor and
Vice Chancellor of
Academic Affairs UMN Rochester
Learning Objectives for Competency E1:
1. Demonstrate quantitative numeracy and facility with the language of
mathematics.
2. Interpret data sets and communicate those interpretations using visual
and other appropriate tools.
3. Make statistical inferences from data sets.
4. Extract relevant information from large data sets.
5. Make inferences about natural phenomena using mathematical models.
6. Apply algorithmic approaches and principles of logic (including the
distinction between cause/effect and association) to problem solving.
7. Quantify and interpret changes in dynamical systems.
Fostering Interdisciplinary
Collaboration:
Hubris is the enemy of collaboration - you don’t
know as much as you think you do.
Trust your colleagues - they know more than you do.
Don’t feel obliged to collaborate with assholes, even
if they are brilliant.There are great non-assholes
out there - find them.
Spice up your life - marry a poet.
Fostering Interdisciplinary
Collaboration:
Don’t judge other disciplines based upon their students.
Find ways to explain your passion for your field to others.
Be patient - don’t expect to learn the language of another field
easily.
The status quo arose from disciplinary silos - don’t be afraid
to challenge it and modify or throw out the “rules”
Find mechanisms to ensure everyone benefits from a
collaboration - individuals, their students, their department share the wealth in order to generate new resources.