The Interdisciplinary Nature of Science

Yesterday was the celebration of World AIDS's Day. I attended a wonderful and informative symposium at a local college and university. I was reminded about some facts that I already knew about the disease as well as learned some knew facts. I can tell you that we've come a long way since the disease was first discovered in 1981. One of the interesting things about this symposium is that it was an interdisciplinary symposium about the disease. It had a mixed of biomedical researchers, scientists, medical doctors, epidemiologists, behavioral scientists and film makers giving presentations about the detection, prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS.

This symposium made me think of the future of science and engineering. Once upon a time, scientists and engineers were isolated in their research lab or plant and only talked to other scientist, their funders and occasionally when things in the lab went well a patent attorney. However, in the information age, scientist and engineers can no longer live in the isolation of their lab or plant. Not only do they have to talk to other scientists or engineers that may not be in their discipline; they are going to have to interact and collaborate with non scientist in order to have a successful career. In this symposium, I recognize that it is the scientists and engineers that lead the way in innovation. However, especially in the disease research and product development scientist and non scientist have to work together to improve our society and to prevent and treat diseases. As far as HIV/AIDS is concerned all the breakthrough in the lab concerning prevention, detection and treatment would have not gone beyond the lab if it wasn't for public health professionals, filmmakers, journalist, politicians and businessmen didn't get involved in getting the word out to the general public. I have a friend who works for corporation that produces consumers good and her job is to serve as an intermediate between research and development and marketing. Her company has the foresight to know that they can't produce quality good unless these two sides of the business collaborate.

So as we create the future STEM workforce, we must let them know that the workforce isn't just a collaboration between other scientists and engineers; but a collaboration between professional of all disciplines. So as they chart their path to pursue a STEM career, be sure to keep people in their network that aren't STEM professional. For that person may be the key to their ability to impact the world.