Abstract
The virtues of interdisciplinarity are more often praised than practiced. The reasons are not difficult to identify. People from different disciplines must integrate a bit, loosening their individual departmental or disciplinary identities, and be willing to share their knowledge, facilities, and resources for commonly perceived objectives. Materials research is a wonderful example for interdisciplinarity. The tent is large and promising and beckons scientists and engineers from practically all areas of knowledge. MRS Bulletin represents this very quest. Despite the obvious attractions, universities and research laboratories have not been very successful in building truly interdisciplinary institutions. Many university departments have materials research only in name, but remain predominantly metallurgy-, chemistry-, chemical engineering-, or ceramics-oriented, the disciplines from where the new departments came into being, and the synergy that a true integration would unleash is absent. There are only a few examples of institutions where the pooling of knowledge and resources have succeeded and many are in the United States. This may not indeed be accidental as the United States still thrives by experimenting and institutions are also not that old to become the guardians of tradition. The University of Illinois is an example where materials research is perceived and practiced as a truly integrated discipline. In the following article, H.K. Birnbaum, who was director of the Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory for over a decade, describes his experience in heading this institution.
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References
Frederick Seitz, On the Frontier, My Life in Science, (AIP Press, New York, 1994), p. 140.
J. Giapintazakis, D.M. Ginsberg and P.D. Han, J. Low Temperature Phys. 77 (1989) p. 155.
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Birnbaum, H.K. “Managing” Interdisciplinary Materials Research at a University: Memoirs of an MRL Director. MRS Bulletin 26, 4–7 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1557/mrs2001.2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/mrs2001.2