A few years ago, I gave a talk at a university’s physics department about my “alternative” career. I was the editor of a physics magazine, and I frequently got requests to explain how — and why — I left active research.
After the talk, my host leaned on the podium and, with eyebrow raised, said, “So, you traded depth for breadth?” He was right: I was happier knowing a bit about many topics than a lot about just one. Seeing the connections between different areas of research — from the impossibly fine precision of nanotechnology to the mysteries of dark matter — made me feel closer to science. It was one of the reasons I left what had become an overly specialized science career.
I’m sharing this story because it explains why I find interdisciplinary research so attractive. Whether you think of it as applying the tools of one field to understand another or discovering problems that live only at the boundaries of different fields, there’s a need to think broadly, see a problem from multiple angles, and collaborate. You can’t get locked into a narrow view. Instead, diverse scientific perspectives need to work seamlessly together.
Interdisciplinary research is critical
The challenges facing us are too complex to solve with a single viewpoint.
Look, for example, at the National Academy of Engineering’s Grand Challenges list: making solar energy economical, advancing health informatics, developing carbon sequestration methods, and more. Not even one of those could be solved within just one discipline. One of the biggest research funding agencies in the United States — the National Science Foundation — prioritizes interdisciplinary work, noting on its website that “support of interdisciplinary research and education is essential for accelerating scientific discovery and preparing a workforce that addresses scientific challenges in innovative ways.”
Specialized, field-specific research is still essential. Without that specialist focus, we wouldn’t have the knowledge base to tackle big problems. The ideal interdisciplinary team of the future will need to have a mixture of these specialists and researchers who can build connections between them. That connection building is a special skill because it requires speaking the languages of many fields and asking questions that pull people into new ways of thinking.
Another reason to champion interdisciplinary research is that it can prepare students for fulfilling careers in various sectors of the workforce. Interdisciplinary research is inherently relatable, and that simple fact can be a compelling reason to choose science as a profession. Returning to the Grand Challenges list, it offers ideas such as making better medicines, understanding the brain, and improving how we learn. These are problems that matter to everyone, and solving them can be a fulfilling career.
Labor shortages are beginning to slow across some industries, but the need to attract skilled, committed young peopl
And careers in various sectors are increasingly valuing interpersonal skills, including communication, collaboration, and team building. Research by the American Institute of Physics shows that in recent years, close to a third of those who held Ph.D.s in physics in the United States and who remained in the United States went into the private sector within a year of earning their doctorates. Large percentages of Ph.D.s in other science and engineering fields are finding jobs in the private sector as well. Working within an interdisciplinary team trains you to think broadly and collaboratively — desirable skills wherever you work and especially valued in the private sector. Encouraging those skills through interdisciplinary projects at the graduate school level allows universities to better prepare their students for careers.
Physics makes connections
I love physics because it trains you to simplify complicated problems to their essence. That simplifying mindset is an asset. But the joke about physicists is that they sometimes take simplification too far — using a sphere to model a porcupine. Meaningful approaches to solving a problem require the expertise of environmentalists, biologists, doctors, engineers, and so on to know when that simplification is OK and when it is not. For a physicist, that means learning not only a new language but also a new mindset about how to add detail to theory.
We see that intersection occurring at the interface between physics and biology. Traditional areas of physics — mechanics, collective motion, complexity, statistical physics, and fluid dynamics — are merging with fundamental questions in biology, such as cell migration, cell motility, epidemiology, and population dynamics. Universities and research labs are creating centers to support interdisciplinary work. At the American Physical Society, we launched a new open-access journal, PRX Life, in 2023 to feature exactly that kind of research.
Another interdisciplinary avenue is the intersection of materials discovery with artificial intelligence. Researchers have nosed around for new materials for decades, using theory and intuition to identify the right blend and arrangement of atomic elements. They then painstakingly tweaked the recipe. That approach led to high-temperature superconductors and the materials used in airplanes and lightweight batteries. But today, AI is able to predict hundreds of thousands of new materials at once — a scale far beyond what humans were able to do previously. The people who predict and search for materials must work with those who know how to design and train these AI tools to fully take advantage of this new technology.
Seek collaboration
Finding research outside of your specialty isn’t necessarily hard, but you must make the time to look. One tip is to skip your department colloquium once in a while so you can attend a seminar in another area. Science journalists also offer a lot of great material to read. The APS online magazine, Physics, makes a point of highlighting interdisciplinary research for its readers. All articles are free, and there’s a mixture of easy reading and more in-depth analyses of new results.
Published research is easier to find now that more of it is available in open-access journals that don’t require paid subscriptions to read. Two journals from APS — Physical Review X and Physical Review Research — offer exclusively open-access studies that cover all of physics and research that physics touches. Anyone can check out the cool stuff that editors have labeled “interdisciplinary physics” in PRX. The list includes new approaches to understanding cancer cells, climate, and animal behavior.
In the distant past, all scientists were interdisciplinary. Now, we’re in a new era in which specialists need to diversify. There’s resistance to doing that because it means moving out of one’s comfort zone and often learning a new language and way of thinking. That’s the challenge — and appeal — of working in any diverse group.
References
“NAE Grand Challenges for Engineering”
“Learn About Interdisciplinary Research”
