The second Interdisciplinary Science Summit was held in Hangzhou on Dec. 7. Led by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and organized by Westlake University, the summit attracted over 300 scholars and experts to discuss the current status and future of interdisciplinary studies.

The meeting was presided over by Prof. Chao Tang, academician and director of the interdisciplinary science department at the NSFC. Prof. Jihong Yu, academician and deputy director of NSFC, and Prof. Li Deng, vice president of Westlake University, gave keynote speeches.

What makes interdisciplinary studies important? What does it mean? Let’s step back to three years ago.

The NSFC founded its Department of Interdisciplinary Sciences at the first Interdisciplinary Science Summit on Nov. 29, 2020. It was given the special mission of breaking the boundaries between academic disciplines, and promoting original, innovative projects. “We live in a time when science and industry change daily. Interdisciplinary integration expands every day, which calls for profound reform in how to conduct scientific research. This is why we need interdisciplinary research,” Jihong Yu said. “Facing the growing diversity and complexity in science and global challenges, we desperately need interdisciplinary exchanges to combine knowledge and skills across disciplines to help us tackle the challenges ahead.”

As a high-level academic conference of the NSFC, the Interdisciplinary Science Summit has strategic importance. The summit invited experts from different fields to share their thoughts on the challenges faced by China and the world.

Three years later, the summit moved from Beijing to Hangzhou.

Prof. Jinghai Li, former Party secretary and director of NSFC, opened the summit. His presentation started with elementary particles and progressed to the expanding universe. To him, studying the same object using different methodology and perspectives could lead to a drastically different results. Though this was a longstanding problem in science, our awareness still needed to grow. Li offered his opinion on the relationship between interdisciplinary science, reformation in the status quo, and how to deal with future challenges.

Prof. Jianwei Pan, acting vice president of the University of Science and Technology of China, provided another case for the discussion. As an expert in quantum optics, quantum information, and quantum mechanics examination, he is also responsible for the progress of Quantum Experiments at Space Scale (QUESS).

Recently, the physicists who built ultrafast “attosecond” lasers were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. The breakthroughs in time measurement can also spur advances in other fields, and such is the charm of interdisciplinary studies. Prof. Ruxin Li, academician and Party secretary of ShanghaiTech University has been digging deep into the research of ultra-peak power laser and high field laser physics. He delivered a speech on the revolutionary influence that technical breakthroughs had on technology.

Prof. Xingao Gong, academician and professor at Fudan University, shared his four decades of experience in computational condensed matter physics. He said computation had become an indispensable tool to interpret the result of experiments, which offered a good chance for material science to develop. With the Department of Interdisciplinary Sciences at the NSFC, talent in mathematics, computer science, and physics could join hands to push the development of this field.

The field of engineering also showcased the power of interdisciplinary exchanges. Prof. Xiaoyong Liu, deputy director of Department 31 of the China Aerospace Science & Industry Corporation Third Academy, shared the interdisciplinary application of combined turbine engine technology and the influence that AI had on the engine design. Prof. Zhihua Zhou, dean of the AI Academy at Nanjing University, shared the exploration on the new machine learning neuron model. The neuron network itself was an interdisciplinary study inspired by visual nerve research.

A lot of questions raised on quantum mechanics and computer science were asked by researchers in life science. Prof. Ruikang Tang of Zhejiang University shared the latest developments in material biomedicine from the perspective of promoting new biomedical knowledge through chemical materials. In a way, all biomanufacturing was physical chemistry used ingeniously, another example of interdisciplinary science.

The presentations covered physics, chemistry, information technology, materials, life science, as well as the challenges in large scientific devices and scientific software. Participants also shared the obstacles faced in reforming research methodology and interdisciplinary fund management. Q&A sessions were arranged after each presentation, allowing participants to communicate in an easy-going and inclusive environment.

The summit also arranged special roundtable with the theme “Interdisciplinarity: Why and How?” Prof. Jinghai Li, Prof. Jianwei Pan, Prof. Yigong Shi, Prof. Chao Tang, and Prof. Yongjun Chen shared their thoughts on the challenges and opportunities faced by interdisciplinary studies. In the end, Chen, the former executive deputy director of the Department of Interdisciplinary Sciences at the NSFC, summarized their work over the past three years and their thoughts for the future.

To answer the question “Interdisciplinarity: Why and How?”, perhaps we could pick the brain of three scientific giants:

Albert Einstein said, “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.”

Werner Heisenberg said, “It is probably true quite generally that in the history of human thinking the most fruitful developments frequently take place at those points where two different lines of thought meet.”

Nobel laureate Lawrence Bragg said, “The important thing in science is not so much to obtain new facts as to discover new ways of thinking about them.”