Brain
research is one of the frontier research areas of this century.
Brain research is recognized explicitly as having become
an interdisciplinary scientific endeavor. The complexity
of the problems involved requires the participation of the
best intellects in many diverse fields: mathematicians, physicists,
chemists, information scientists, engineers, philosophers,
artists and humanists, in addition to the biologists and
physicians. It is inherently a multi-disciplinary activity
that benefits from the input of every intellectual enterprise
practiced by humanity.
The small and isolated nature of academic departments in Taiwan
makes this endeavor difficult to carry out using our existing
research infrastructure. To circumvent this problem of insufficient
critical mass, the University System of Taiwan (UST) establishes
the Brain Research Center (BRC) that draws on the complementary
resources of the best research groups already working in this
area on four participating campuses.
The goal of BRC is to integrate and strengthen existing biomedical,
biophysical, and biochemical collaborations among the four
universities, to encourage interdisciplinary research activity
by inviting the participation of UST¡¦s mathematicians, information
scientists, and engineers who are interested in the development
of theoretical and computational neuroscience, and to recruit
aggressively outstanding scientists to join our effort.