I write a lot about interdisciplinary research (it’s my job), but it was just recently that I heard the best description of what it is that makes interdisciplinary collaborations possible. It came from Carla Shatz, PhD, who directs Stanford Bio-X -- an interdisciplinary institute founded in 1998 that brings together faculty from the schools of medicine, humanities & sciences and engineering. She told me:
You have to be able to walk into someone's lab and say, "You know, I have this problem in my lab. Would you like to have a cup of coffee and talk about it?" And then that person needs to say, "Yes."
We were talking about a recent report by the National Research Council of the National Academies. They had put together a workshop and then published a report giving advice and best practices for supporting interdisciplinary research. The report used Bio-X as a success story for the type of innovation that can come out of programs that cross disciplines.
Nowhere in the report is there a subhead reading, “Faculty have to say yes,” but a lot of the other advice is straight out of the Bio-X playbook. The institute needs to be located at the cross section of several schools or departments (check). The institute needs a building that brings people together (check). The institute needs to support students (check). The institute needs to be a financial value add rather than taxing participating departments (check).
This isn’t specifically called out in the report, but Shatz added that a good interdisciplinary institute also needs good food. She pointed out that people come from all over campus to eat at Nexus, located in the middle of the Clark Center that houses Bio-X and serves as a focus for its activities. It turns out scientists are just like the rest of us: offer good food and they will come. And then they will chat, and the next thing you know they'll be collaborating.
I wrote a Q&A with Shatz based on our conversation. From now on, when I hear the phrase “She said yes” I’ll think of her, and her great description of the attitude that underlies collaboration.
Previously: Bio-X Kids Science Day inspires young scientists, Dinners spark neuroscience conversation, collaboration, Stanford’s Clark Center, home to Bio-X, turns 10 and Pioneers in science
Photo from Bio-X
