CULTURE AND RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURE 371
With such dependence on IT, it would not be surprising if individuals who are especially knowl-
edgeable about information technology were necessary to keep these laboratories running at high
efficiency. However, computer scientists are very wary of being put into the role of technician or
programmer. Computer science researchers, facing this prospect from various research disciplines, can
be sensitive about wanting respect for the fundamental research advances they bring to the table.^74
The roles of intellectual collaborator and co-equal partner are largely incompatible with the role of
technician, and it is understandable that a computer scientist would want to be treated as a coequal. At
the same time, a certain amount of humility and respect is also necessary. That is, the computer scientist
must refrain from jumping to conclusions, must be willing to learn the facts and contemplate biological
data seriously, and must not work solely on the refined abstraction problem. It may well be necessary
for the computer scientist to do some mundane things to earn the confidence of the biologist partner
before being able to do more interesting things.
The biologist has a role to play in facilitating partnership as well. For example, the biologist must
understand that the computer scientist (especially one at the beginning of his or her career) wants to do
work of publishable quality as well—work that will earn the respect of colleagues in computer science.
As suggested above, programming generally does not meet this test. A second important point is to
recognize without condescension the fact that many (most?) computer scientists have very little experi-
ence or familiarity with either biological concepts or data. Still a third point is the recognition that while
primary data generation and experiment remain important to the life sciences, analytical work on
existing data can be every bit as valuable—bioinformatics is not simply “taking someone else’s data.”
This last point suggests a more subtle risk in partnerships—that a person with specialized skills may be
regarded as a technician or a stand-alone consultant rather than as a true collaborator.
10.3.3 Barriers in Academia
One important venue for research at the BioComp interface is academia. Universities can provide
infrastructure for work in this area, but institutional difficulties often arise in academic settings for work
that is not traditional or easily identified with existing departments. These differences derive from the
structure and culture of departments and disciplines, and lead to scientists in different disciplines
having different intellectual and professional goals and experiencing different conditions for their
career success. Collaborators from different disciplines must find and maintain common ground, such
as agreeing on goals for a joint project, but also respect one another’s separate priorities, such as having
to publish in primary journals to present at particular conferences or to obtain tenure in their respective
departments according to those departmental criteria. Such cross-pressures and expectations from the
home departments and disciplinary colleagues remain even if the participants develop similar goals for
a project.
10.3.3.1 Academic Disciplines and Departmental Structure
Universities are structured around disciplinary departments and often have considerable difficulty in
supporting and sustaining interdisciplinary work. Neither fish nor fowl, the interdisciplinary researcher is
often faced with the formidable task of finding an intellectual home within the university that will take the
responsibility for providing tenure, research space, start-up funding, and the like. The essential problem is
that a researcher working at the interface between fields X and Y is often doing work that does not fall
clearly within the purview of either Department X or Department Y. When budgets are expanding and
(^74) It is useful to note that research laboratories in both biology and computer science employ technicians and programmers,
and such individuals serve very useful functions in each kind of laboratory. But the role of a lab technician in a biology labora-
tory or programmer in a computer laboratory is quite different from the role of the senior scientist who directs the biology or
computer laboratory.