“Pure science subjects continue to underpin applied sciences’
Education in Ireland recently toured Indian cities with 18 Irish HEIS participating to inform Indian students about niche areas of study in Ireland. Jeremy C Simpson, head, School of Biology & Environmental Science and Vice Principal (International), UCD College of Science on opportunities in sciences. Edited excerpts:
how to encourage young researchers to invest in pure sciences?
All the current exciting applied developments that we see - for example in medical diagnostics and new therapy development - come from knowledge obtained through pure (fundamental) science disciplines.
It should never be forgotten that, for example, the pharmaceuticals that we have available today were in many cases first designed or discovered through fundamental chemistry and biology experiments carried out tens of years ago. Pure science subjects continue to underpin applied science and engineering disciplines, and so if the pure sciences are ignored then there will be no new knowledge for the next generations to further develop.
Young researchers should look carefully at opportunities whereby they can deepen their fundamental scientific knowledge, but ideally do this in an environment where they can also witness applied science going on. In this way they will appreciate the full pathway of how research in the pure sciences leads to the development of new products
that benefit mankind.
What are the advantages of pursuing a niche discipline?
Niche disciplines and courses provide students the opportunity to gain in depth knowledge of a particular area
. This can be very useful if they plan to develop specific skills that ultimately lead them to become a recognised expert in an area or technology. Science is advancing at a rapid pace, and new technologies and methodologies to solve problems are being developed all the time. As such, it is vital that we train students in all emerging areas to equip mankind for future needs.
If everyone studies exactly the same core disciplines this would stifle scientific and research creativity and would be inhibit multidisciplinary research.
Equally, from a career perspective, we do not want all graduates to have identical skill sets, as they would then all be competing for the same job opportunities.
What opportunities lie in the field of cell biology?
The discipline of cell biology underpins all life science research.
The cell is the basic unit of life, and therefore cell biology needs to consider both the basic components (genes and molecules) within cells, as well as how cells work together to form entire organisms.
As such, cell biology knowledge is of huge importance in applications such as disease and infection diagnosis, therapeutic development, and medical device technologies.
All of these areas currently have massive career opportunities, and cell biologists make critical contributions to them.
are disciplines across academia integrated enough to enable multidisciplinary research?
This is a very exciting time for science disciplines in academia, never has there been so many inter- and cross-disciplinary efforts to solve important problems in health and medicine.
For multidisciplinary research to be successful it requires deep knowledge in specific fields, but at the same time respective experts need to be able to communicate beyond their discipline and explain to others their scientific needs.
For example, in my own research field of therapeutic delivery into cells, molecular cell biologists in my own team work closely with chemists, physicists and computer scientists to design new nanosized carriers that we hope will be used in future medical devices.
No one research group can have all of this expertise in one place, so multidisciplinary efforts are essential to advance science.