(This is the first of many postings to come directly from new Wilkinson College Dean Patrick Fuery. We welcome your comments and encourage you to return often to see what Dean Fuery is up to and what he has planned for Wilkinson College.)

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Day 1: I have of late (to worryingly paraphrase Hamlet) found myself quoting a line from Gregory Bateson in a variety of contexts, but all to a common goal. The line: “What bonus or increment of knowing follows from combining information from two or more sources?”; the goal – how do we develop an innovative and distinct research culture in Wilkinson College of Humanities and Social Sciences? Bateson’s point is deeply interesting because, as he goes on to show, combining knowledge from different sources (the essence of interdisciplinarity) does often produce a bonus of immeasurable benefit. One of the examples Bateson gives of this is from neurophysiology called synaptic summation. Neuron ‘C’ can only fire if there is a combination of neurons ‘A’ and ‘B’; A or B by themselves cannot produce this effect and C cannot fire alone. The benefit is a type of neurological action, or more simply put, our brain gets to work!

The path to help create and facilitate these bonuses of combinations and innovations is just beginning – the next 100 days should prove to be exciting in many ways.