As we develop new and far-reaching interdisciplinary programs, it is perhaps wise to reflect on the roots and origins of our successes (and our failures) in these multifaceted programs. New multidisciplinary projects are often considered the jewels of university programs, particularly in the arts and sciences.

Most of us will agree that the economic boom and prosperity we enjoy today can, in many ways, be traced to the investment that universities and research institutions made in basic research during the fifties and sixties. For instance, technological advances in electronics were not likely to have been achieved without basic research in simple elementary materials sciences in the fifties. Nuclear magnetic resonance was just a sophisticated research technique (thought to be of no real practical importance even in the seventies) well before its application was developed for magnetic resonance imaging. MRI, as it is known today in the popular press, is a commonplace tool found in every moderately sized hospital in the country. It is also the basis of a worldwide multi-billion dollar industry.

These modern technological achievements were not planned by bureaucrats but grew out of fundamental research in areas where there was no thought given to future economies. A curiosity of science or scrutiny of ancient scripts today can lead to new technologies tomorrow. In fact, this has happened sufficiently often without planning or prediction that one may wonder if the current emphasis on funding research in areas selected as the most promising for new technologies will really succeed. Will such an approach train young minds to be original and have the openness to question standard lore and look to new paradigms? Perhaps not.

With this in mind it is important, at least in the arts and sciences, that we maintain and strengthen our emphasis on research and studies in the very basic disciplines: languages and literatures, elementary sciences and mathematics, and the basic social and behavioral sciences. Building the bridges to new endeavors based on strong roots in these disciplines is the key to developing successful interdisciplinary programs. If we have learned something from history, it is that investment in basic research has, in the long run, paid the very best dividends.

Neil Sullivan,
<sullivan@phys.ufl.edu>

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