Letter from the Dean
Dear Readers,
In recent years, a number of leading universities have recognized that
important questions and opportunities will emerge through interdisciplinary
research – especially investigations at the intersections of the
traditional physical, biological and medical sciences. While academic
leaders across the nation analyze how to best overcome challenges facing
interdisciplinary research, we at Stanford University have been learning
by doing. Research across disciplines has been an important component
of the fabric of Stanford for many years. I believe it will define our
future as the nation’s premier research-intensive university.
Stanford is fertile ground for interdisciplinary research. Our undergraduate,
graduate and professional schools are located on the same campus, only
a few minutes’ walk apart. These proximities enable students and
faculty to interact in both planned and unanticipated manners. Additionally,
we are relatively small but also quite excellent. Since significant faculty
growth is not feasible, our researchers are eager to share resources
or ideas with other members of the community. Perhaps most important,
our faculty and students are interested and motivated to collaborate
across disciplines and traditional fields – it is part of the entrepreneurial
culture of Stanford.
In the coming years, several university initiatives will further support
interdisciplinary research and education. Some of these programs, including
Bio-X, the campuswide interdisciplinary research initiative, will span
the university. Others will emanate from individual schools. In some
cases, School of Medicine faculty and students will serve as leaders.
The Clark Center, which opened in the summer on the medical school campus,
makes clear our commitment to interdisciplinary research. This state-of-the-art
facility will house 40 faculty from four schools, representing 24 departments
ranging from applied physics to surgery. It brings together faculty and
students from the medical, physical, biological, computational, engineering
and environmental sciences. Among the areas for initial focus within
the Clark Center: biocomputation; biodesign; bioengineering; biophysics
of single molecules; chemical biology; genomics/proteomics; imaging of
molecules, cells and tissues; regenerative medicine and systems neuroscience.
We are organizing more exclusively medical interdisciplinary efforts
under the banner of the Stanford Institutes of Medicine. Last year we
launched the first, the Stanford Institute of Cancer/Stem Cell Biology
and Medicine. Next year we plan to launch three more: the Stanford Institute
of Cardiovascular Medicine, the Stanford Institute of Neuroscience and
the Stanford Institute of Immunology, Transplantation and Infectious
Diseases.
As a medical school and medical center, improving patient care is our
ultimate mission. We are designing the new institutes to foster the connections
between our basic and clinical research faculty and to improve care of
our patients. They will also provide new forums for the education of
our students and postgraduate trainees.
Yet another interdisciplinary project is in the works: the Department
of Bioengineering, run jointly by the schools of engineering and of medicine.
Through programs in graduate and undergraduate education (slated to commence
in 2004 and 2005, respectively) it is our hope that this new department
will permit us to better understand living systems; learn from these
systems to improve engineering designs; engineer biological systems;
and improve human and environmental health through research, education
and therapy.
Interdisciplinary research and education offer exciting opportunities.
I believe Stanford is poised to seize them and become an even more valuable
contributor to medicine in the 21st century.
With best regards,
Philip Pizzo, MD
Professor of Pediatrics and of Microbiology and Immunology
Carl and Elizabeth Naumann Professor
Dean, Stanford University School of Medicine
Back
To Contents
