Repository: UIHistories Project: Dedication - Beckman Institute [PAGE 12]

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will be a continuing need for the Beckman Institute to receive nourishment from all quarters—federal, state, and private—if it is to reach its full potential. As with the detailed programming of the Beckman Institute, the matter of continued funding is the target of an increasingly intense effort by the faculty who have been involved thus far. The program planning for the Beckman Institute has been one of the most stimulating occasions for interdisciplinary research on this campus in its history. From the moment the various diverse groups of faculty involved in programming this building came together, two different sorts of things have been occurring in our meetings. The first has been the obvious need to work out at considerable haste the plan for the building. We have done that, thanks to a terrific group of architects, some very good non-faculty people on this campus, and especially Ted's heroic efforts. The faculty have designed in one year (which is probably a near record for any university building) an institute that will house the most diverse range of disciplines ever assembled in a single structure at the University of Illinois. The second thing going on in our meetings has been a large number of truly fascinating interchanges that have occurred as people, many of whom have never met before, have begun to discover points of common interest in their research. Meetings typically scheduled for 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday morning often continued informally for another three hours. The effect of these contacts has been catalytic. Joint research projects have been developed among people who did not know of each other's existence a year ago. Research proposals joindy prepared by such unlikely combinations as biologists, physicists, and computer scientists are becoming frequent, if not common. TTie first course in my memory to be jointly offered by computer scientists and neuroscientists, called Computational Neuroscience, has begun meeting this semester. I could go on with examples but the point is clear. Dr. Beckman, Mrs. Beckman, and Governor Thompson, we have even more to thank you for than the Beckman Institute. Your recognition of our need for interdisciplinary interaction has already begun to make the vision of the Institute a working reality.