AsianScientist (Jan. 15, 2025) –Artificial Intelligence (AI), high performance computing and engineering have consistently had a significant impact in nearly all fields of scientific research. As technology improves, scientists harness better tools to understand questions that concern us all.
Cross-collaboration between disciplines does not need to stop at tools. Vastly differing fields of research can inform and inspire one another if researchers are willing to work together and share openly.
“It begins with sharing an idea,” encouraged Professor Steven Chu, Professor of Physics, of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, and of Energy Science and Engineering at Stanford University. He urged participants at the Global Young Scientists Summit (GYSS) 2025, organized by Singapore’s National Research Foundation, to look past the possibility of having ideas stolen and focus on the potential of sharing concepts.
“What you’ll find is so much more enjoyable when you’re out interacting with people, when you trust each other, and when you’re sharing ideas and can quickly help each other bootstrap up out of nowhere,” he added.
Launched in 2013 and held at the National University of Singapore (NUS), GYSS invited over 340 young researchers from around the world to put such idea sharing into practice as they presented their work, met their peers and heard from top scientific minds across a variety of fields.
The first panel of the summit—Interdisciplinary Approaches To Solving Global Challenges—saw leading scientists sharing their experiences of interdisciplinary collaboration. In her work as a forensic anthropologist, Professor Dame Sue Black, President of St John’s College at the University of Oxford, developed techniques to prove a person’s identity by the back of their hand. This project, involving AI experts as well as anatomists, was developed to provide evidence of child sexual abuse in court.
“You don’t have all the skills yourself, you have to be able to reply on the others to be able to do [what you cannot],” said Dame Sue. “The statistics on the potential uniqueness of the hand is phenomenal, and way exceeds what we ever thought possible. It could not have been done by one person—it had to have been done by a team.”
In the diverse atmosphere of GYSS, participants were also reminded that collaboration can be even more effective when research is an open and inclusive space.
In his plenary lecture, Dr Sir Richard Roberts, Chief Scientific Officer at New England Biolabs, highlighted the obstacles that women face in STEM and research fields.
“So often we’re biased against women in ways that we don’t fully appreciate,” he said. “I know this from my own experience. When I look back, I’ve done things that were biased against women and I’m really sorry about that and I want to do something about it.”
Dr Sir Richard also shared his journey through different disciplines, towards his Nobel Prize-winning research on RNA splicing and his industry role at New England Biolabs.
“I always feel that when you find something that is more interesting than what you’re doing, don’t be afraid to switch,” he advised.
During the panel session, Professor Dame Sue urged the young researchers in the audience to push themselves beyond the boundaries that define their fields to find inspiration and excitement in research.
“I want to be at that threshold where something that another scientist says to you sends your mind off in a complete and utter tizz because you’ve never thought that way before,” she said. “That’s where interdisciplinarity comes in—it’s the magic and excitement of somebody knowing something that you don’t know—but in relaying it to you, changes your world.”
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Image: National Research Foundation
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