Multidisciplinarity key to solving today’s problems
September 05, 2019
Hortense Le Ferrand, the MRS Bulletin Postdoctoral Publication Prize recipient from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, writes a blog post to Materials Connect on research reported at the 2019 MRS Spring Meeting in Phoenix, Ariz. that “illustrates well why and where multidisciplinarity can foster scientific breakthroughs and technological innovations.”
“For example,” she writes:
“during the characterization of materials at the nanoscopic level, in 3D, and while performing a dynamic motion or a chemical reaction, do we not need to have excellent detectors with ultra-high resolution? To use the new biomarker sensing strategies in a real-life application that can really make a difference in population with limited access to health care, do we not need the advice of medical doctors, health workers and the target population as well? To develop coatings for our boats that prevent the adhesion of barnacles on their hull, do we not need first to understand at a biological, molecular and mechanical levels, how they attach underwater to flat surfaces?” Read more
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