Synthetic Biology as a New Opportunity for Multidisciplinary Undergraduate Research

Many of the most profound discoveries have occurred at the boundaries between traditional scientific disciplines. When chemists talk to physicists, or psychologists work with biolo-gists, or mathematicians confer with engineers, new perspec-tives arise and lead to scientific breakthroughs. Scientists from these and other disciplines are finding ways to communicate and collaborate, addressing research questions in a multidisci-plinary fashion. We should encourage the next generation of scientific researchers, our students, to understand the nature of multidisciplinary research and provide them opportunities to practice it. BIO2010, a report by the National Research Council on trans-forming undergraduate biology education, recommends that reformers of undergraduate education “should consider the importance of building a strong foundation in mathematics an