Interdisciplinarity among academic scientists: individual and organizational factors

Access, Participation, and Career Outcomes " (Grant # REC-0529642). The opinions here are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. During the dissertation research process, I have received a lot of support and help from my committee and my family. I truly appreciate that I have a very supportive committee. My advisor, Dr. Melkers provided me with constant support, guidance and funding for my research. She motivated me to overcome many challenges, both academic and personal, during the period of dissertation research. Dr. Hicks gave me a lot of encouragement and advised me to adopt different research approaches to address measurement issues of my study. Dr. Porter's studies on interdisciplinarity influenced me to formulate my research topic. He trained me to use the VantagePoint to process my data and generously shared with me his algorithm programs. Dr. Lewis provided me with a great deal of guidance and advice on my research methods, and was very patient to help me improve my academic writing skills. Dr. Hoffmann gave me valuable feedbacks on the conceptual definition of key terms in my study, especially from the philosophy perspective. I also want to thank all my committee members for spending a significant amount of time on meeting with me to discuss my research. I cannot complete my dissertation without the support from my family. I would like to thank my husband, Qingling Lu, who has given me significant support and encouragement along my PhD pursuing journey. Our daughters, Chen-Yi and Chen-Mo, iv were born on June 2011 and June 2013 separately. They are the most beautiful and precious gifts I have got in my life, and have been the sources of my joy, energy and passion since the first day they were born. I also want to thank my parents and parents-in-law, all of whom have been supportive of me all the time. There are many more people I would like to say " thank you " to, professors and colleagues at both GSU and GaTech, friends in China and USA. Their support and help are very important for me to complete my dissertation successfully. xii SUMMARY Today when interdisciplinary research (IDR) is becoming increasingly important in generating innovative research results and solving complex problems in academia, discussions of IDR antecedents, processes and outcomes are becoming increasingly important in research policy and sociology of science. This study …