hat do WIMP detectors, bionic eyes, and micro-fabricated rocks have in common? They all fall between the cracks. At the welcome dinner for the new class of Stanford Graduate Fellows, Dean Jim Plummer (SGF committee member, John M. Fluke Professor of Electrical Engineering, and Frederick Emmons Terman Dean of the School of Engineering) advised a group of Stanford’s top graduate students to consider taking on research projects that fall between the cracks; that is, projects that do not fit neatly into any one department, but instead span multiple fields, such as engineering and physics, in the case of WIMP detectors.

	Jim Plummer: "Some of the most important opportunities going forward lie at the boundaries between traditional disciplines."

WIMP (Weakly Interacting Massive Particles) detectors combine the technologies of physics and silicon chip design in an attempt to determine whether our universe is open or closed (a closed universe being one that consists of enough matter that eventually, due to gravitational pull, it will collapse back to a singularity). There is not enough visible matter in the universe to make this happen, but there is a suspicion that there is enough invisible matter. WIMP detectors are designed to locate this invisible or "dark" matter.

Dean Plummer’s talk wove through several examples of similar undertakings. Engineers are working with biologists to develop microchips with the ability to detect varying levels of photons. These chips might someday replace a diseased retina and connect electrochemically to a normal optic nerve so that people blinded by a certain eye disease may again be able to see. Earth scientists and engineers combine talents to create micro-fabricated rocks made from silicon in order to study fluid flow in soil. These models should allow the tracing of contaminants through the ground, leading to more complete and efficient clean up methods.

Some of the most interesting research is being done by graduate students who have the ability to work with more than one department, more than one lab, and more than one field of expertise. How do you get creative people to work on these kinds of problems? According to Dean Plummer: "You find the very best students in the world. You fund them in a way that allows curiosity-driven research. You encourage them to seek the best ideas they can find for their projects by giving them the freedom to move between departments and faculty research groups seamlessly. This is what the SGF program is all about."

Dean Plummer urged the fellows to take some time to explore their interests in different departments before choosing a research project. He advised them to attend seminars in fields they know nothing about. And he closed by reminding them, as if they were in need of reminding (snowboard and space craft designers among them), to have fun.