Fostering Interdisciplinarity in Research and Education: NIMBioS and Beyond

1. 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, IIS-0427471,EF-0832858 NIMBioS.org

2. Overview Interdisciplinarity NIMBioS Goals, Activities and some History Reports and Calls for Change Comments on Fostering Interdisciplinary Collaboration

3. Crossdisciplinary Interdisciplinary Multidisciplinary Transdisciplinary

4. 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)

5. 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?”

6. 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

7. 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.

8. NIMBioS.org Research Activities Working Groups on Focused Topics Investigative Workshops Postdoctoral Fellowships Sabbatical Visitors Short-term Visitors

9. NIMBioS.org

10. 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.

11. Our Leadership Team Cynthia Peterson - Graduate Education Sergey Gavrilets -Scientific Activities Chris Welsh -Deputy Director Suzanne Lenhart - Outreach, Education & Diversity Graham Hickling - Partner Relations

12. OurStaff Michael Peek – IT Manager Pam Bishop – Program Evaluation Coordinator Eric Carr – HPC Specialist Jane Comiskey – IT/Web Specialist Toby Koosman– Business Manager Jennifer Thomas – Travel and Logistics Sarah Duncan – Outreach/Education Coordinator Catherine Crawley – Communications Coordinator

13. 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.

14. NIMBioS Postdocs Yi Mao (Physical Chemistry) Folashade Agusto (Math) Erol Akcay (Biology) Will Godsoe (Biology) Sharon Bewick (Chemistry)

15. NIMBioS NSF Collaborative Centers

16. 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

18. Math Ecology Computer Science Computer Science/ Ecology Computer Science Computer Science Math Math Math/ Ecology Physics Math Math Math/ Ecology Ecology

19. 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.

20. 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

21. 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

22. www.eds.com

23. 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).

24. National Academies Board on Life SciencesA 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

25. 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

26. The National New Biology Initiative Setting big goals: address societal problems • Food • Environment • Energy • Health

27. What is the New Biology? Biology

28. 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

30. Claudia Neuhauser - HHMI Professor and Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs - UMN Rochester

31. 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.

32. 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.

33. 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.