The Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies (AAIS) at Peking University (PKU) has just entered its 11th year. The establishment of this institution aims to take full advantages of PKU’s strength in traditional areas, including natural science, engineering, medical science and humanities, and build a top-class platform for interdisciplinary researches; fuel the development of forefront sciences; as well as cultivate young minds with interdisciplinary perspectives. The guideline for AAIS is: combining the theoretical with practice, forsaking fickleness, improving the institutional system, being project-driven, staying all-inclusive and open. In the past ten years, AAIS has made a successful start, and been steadily growing into a mature organization.
At the current stage of scientific and technological development, interdisciplinary interaction has become an important and even major way to achieve innovative breakthroughs. Scholars who have the most potential to be renowned as top scientists are usually equipped with two or more specialties. Of course, each discipline has its own theoretical frameworks and ways of thinking, as well as research tools and techniques. Therefore, becoming an expert of multiple fields is a great challenge, and those who work in interdisciplinary areas must have high aspiration, extraordinary courage, the quality of persistence, and sometimes even the spirit of deviation and adventurousness. In many cases, interdisciplinary studies are carried out under the cooperation of numerous researchers with different backgrounds, which requires teamwork and a tolerating mind. We must be capable of learning from each other, while keeping our eyes on the bigger picture and giving less thought to personal loss and gain.
Interdisciplinary interaction has become the “new norm” for PKU, and for AAIS, there is still a long way to go. We warmly look forward to having more determined scholars join our team, and explore the possibilities and opportunities in interdisciplinary fields. Together, we hope that AAIS will become a base for high-level original researches, a cradle for interdisciplinary talents, and an academic home for all PKUers.