Creating opportunities for different disciplines to learn from each other and collaborate has been an important part of the University’s mission. Interdisciplinary partnerships, discourse, and research have flourished in the past five years with active encouragement from the administration.

One good example of such interdisciplinary thinking can be found in the field of neuroscience, where Columbia already has two Nobel Prize winners in Richard Axel and Eric Kandel. In March 2006, the University announced plans to establish the Jerome L. Greene Science Center, which will be among the world’s preeminent centers for education and research in the neurosciences and their connection to fields as diverse as economics and fine arts.