By empowering research collaborations across disciplines, departments, and units, we’re building on a legacy that has defined Rochester as a scientific, cultural, and clinical leader.
As many of us were growing up, we were sometimes given the impression that pivotal scientific discoveries and historic advances in human knowledge could each be attributed to a single person. The stereotype was that one person worked alone, toiling away in a laboratory or a library or in a remote area of the world until they reached a “eureka” moment.
Those of us engaged in academic pursuits have long known that the image of a lone scientist, scholar, or artist was almost entirely fiction. When it comes to leading research institutions like the University of Rochester, the pursuits of groundbreaking ideas and transformative applications are almost always a team effort.
By that I mean the arrival of the digital age and its explosion of information, data, and communications technology has required modern scientists and scholars to share their collective expertise to tackle important questions and challenges. It’s been clear for decades that no single person has all the answers. To really make advances, you need a team that spans departments, units, and schools, one that brings in perspectives and approaches that we would miss if we simply closed our doors and worked alone.
At Rochester, we have been at the forefront of such crossdisciplinary research for more than a century. Think of the founding of the Institute of Optics in 1929. Based at the Hajim School of Engineering & Applied Sciences, the institute draws on our strengths in physics and astronomy, areas throughout the Medical Center, and across arts and sciences.
For more than 60 years, the Center for Visual Science has been a leading research home for vision science, bringing together optics, ophthalmology, neuroscience, and other disciplines.
Our undergraduate programs in neuroscience are among the oldest such programs in the country, straddling the worlds of the School of Arts & Sciences, the Hajim School, and medicine. At the Medical Center, the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience spans more than a dozen departments and centers across the University. The institute is home to our Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center, one of 15 nationally recognized centers funded by Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development.
More recently, our data science program was established in 2013 with the intention of bringing together groups of researchers to connect with one another and to share their knowledge. Renamed the Goergen Institute for Data Science in 2015, thanks to a multimillion-dollar commitment from University Trustee Robert Goergen ’60 and his wife, Pamela, the institute today offers both undergraduate and graduate degrees and works with close to two dozen departments and programs.
And earlier this year, we designated the innovative Eastman Performing Arts Medicine program as a University center. Drawing on two of Rochester’s signature strengths, the center brings together our expertise in music, arts, health care, and research to advance healing.
As with the Goergen Institute, creating an environment for innovative collaboration also requires partners across the University community. Two recent examples: this spring’s historic gift from entrepreneur and philanthropist Tom Golisano will leverage our incredible work in intellectual and developmental disabilities even further; and a transformative gift this fall from entrepreneur and Trustee Emeritus Phil Saunders will boost our teams in orthopaedics and nursing.
As we developed our new strategic plan, Boundless Possibility, we wove our history of collaboration into the fabric of our road map for the future. Entering the second year of the plan, we identified 10 University-wide interdisciplinary projects to pilot efforts to build new collaborations across the institution.
While it’s too early to predict the future of any of the new projects, we know that in order to be research leaders, we must build on our strengths and our legacy. We do that by empowering our students, faculty, clinicians, and staff to work at their full potential in new initiatives and program enhancements.
As we have for 175 years, the University of Rochester will continue to be a leader as we pursue bold ideas, contribute to the world’s store of academic, cultural, and artistic excellence, provide students with transformative learning experiences, and deliver medicine of the highest order.
Thank you for being part of our journey.
(Rochester Review, Fall 2024)