In June, Oxford University received a £60 million ($100 million) donation to create an interdisciplinary research school. “It’s a virtual school in a way,” says Grace Haydon, a press officer at Oxford. “It doesn’t really have a central physical base.” The donation came from James Martin, a leader in bringing computer science to government and business, and is intended to help Oxford researchers think imaginatively about future threats and opportunities, such as global warming and shorter working hours.
Martin, who studied physics at Oxford during the 1950s, says that university researchers have become too specialized. “One of the most important activities for a leading university today should be the multidisciplinary academic thinking needed to find solutions to humanity’s biggest problems and address our future opportunities,” he says.
