Scientific invention used to be dogged by the artificial boundaries drawn between research disciplines. A new institute officially opened last week by the Minister for Education hopes to overcome these barriers to progress and let the ideas flow.
Dr Woods presided over the opening of the Sami Nasr Institute for Advanced Materials at Trinity College Dublin, accompanied by the Provost, Prof Tom Mitchell. The centre now becomes the focus of materials research and development at Trinity and brings under one roof all the contributing disciplines, including physics, chemistry and engineering.
This may seem a simple task but the tradition was for these sciences to remain separate. The result was either duplication of effort or lost opportunities.
Chemists developed new materials but hadn't a use for them. Engineers needed novel materials to solve a problem but hadn't a way to get them. Physicists found unusual properties in a substance but had no way to apply them.
This will no longer be the case, stated Prof Werner Blau, acting head of research at the centre and also head of the nearby physics department. "It is a consolidation of the materials activities in the college."
It brings together specialists in all of the disciplines involved in the development of new materials. Chemists will synthesise advanced materials in its laboratories, physicists will characterise these new substances and identify their properties and engineers will then apply them to new devices and in new applications.
"There is a lot of fancy science in materials science," Prof Blau explained. The institute will develop materials for electronics and optoelectronics, the medical instrument sector and building industry. "The idea is that it is applications driven," Prof Blau said, with many discoveries having immediate commercial application.
Theoretical and basic science will remain a key feature of the institute's activities, however.
Prof Blau estimated at least half the projects will be driven by curiosity.
Work initiated by Prof Michael Coey on advanced new magnetic materials was a good example of how the system works, Prof Blau said. Prof Coey is a world leader in the development of novel materials for permanent magnets.
It starts with theoretical studies of possible combinations of elements. These can then be synthesised in the institute and studied for useful properties. Patents may be applied for to protect intellectual property and uses for the new materials then pursued, all within the institute.
The institute is named in honour of Mr Sami Nasr, a Palestinian who fled Iraq in 1959 and was a postgraduate student of geology at Trinity. His acceptance here without prejudice to his religion or background had a tremendous impact on him, Prof Blau said. "He had a great affinity for the college."
Mr Nasr moved to Australia and became wealthy. He died two years ago but left more than £1 million to the college, which was used to begin efforts to create an advanced materials' institute. This led to last week's opening of the £17 million institute, including the 6,000-square-metre £11 million building and a £6 million fit-out. "Sami Nasr's money got it off the ground," Prof Blau said. "It wouldn't have started without it."