IDRE Symposium

Interdisciplinary Research - When Miracles Happen
Development of high performing collaborative teams
Featured talk by Dr. Kevin Bennet

Mayo Clinic has a rich history of interdisciplinary research teams and has many examples and experiences in the development of medical devices and systems resulting from extensive collaborations of physicians, surgeons, scientists and engineers. This presentation will discuss the Mayo Clinic development and coordination of teams, successes and experiential determined requirements for successful collaboration. Further comments will discuss Mayo Clinic administrative support of interdisciplinary research.

Kevin E. Bennet, PhD, serves as chair of the Division of Engineering and co-director of the Neural Engineering Laboratories at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, USA. He is responsible for the development and application of new technology for clinical practice and research. His personal direct research and development efforts include deep brain stimulation, wireless physiological monitoring and minimally invasive surgery. He holds the academic rank of Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery of the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science. Dr. Bennet received his BSChE in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, his MBA from Harvard Business School and his PhD in engineering from Deakin University.

Dr. Karen Stephenson began as a quantum chemist and ended as a classically trained Harvard anthropologist using every bit of her education. She wandered through Saharan deserts and the green and leafy jungles of Mesoamerica before stumbling into corporate jungles where she was last sighted. In 2013, she was appointed the H. Smith Richardson Fellow by the Center for Creative Leadership. She was the first Katherine Houghton Hepburn Fellow, an honor bestowed by Bryn Mawr for her groundbreaking work in the social sciences. She was hailed in Business 2.0 as “The Organization Woman” and distinguished as only one of four women in Random House’s Guide to Management Gurus. Malcolm Gladwell featured her in The New Yorker for her innovative research on the workplace and corporate office. With over two decades of teaching at UCLA and Harvard, she now lectures at Yale University and Erasmus University in the Netherlands.

Dr. Maura Borrego is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Curriculum & Instruction at the University of Texas at Austin. She previously served as a Program Director at the National Science Foundation and an associate dean and director of interdisciplinary graduate programs. In her keynote address, she helped participants think about what they can do to support interdisciplinary research and interdisciplinary graduate training at UTEP.

Dr. Patricia Hurn, Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation at The University of Texas System delivered the keynote address on the realities of rewarding and recognizing interdisciplinary activities. In addition to her leadership role, Dr. Hurn is an active neuroscientist and directs a translational laboratory that studies the role of hormone in post-stroke immunology, funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Susan Franzen, Director of Shared Services Innovations at the University of Texas System and Deana Pennington, an interdisciplinary scientist with a PhD in Physical Geography, were the featured keynote speakers. They each presented interactive workshops with the goal of assisting faculty and IDR teams in developing the necessary skills to build successful interdisciplinary collaborations.