Scott White was a young University of Illinois researcher in 1998, eager to share his excitement about the potential of self-healing materials and possibly initiate a collaboration with a young chemistry professor he had found through a search of the U of I Web site. White found himself sitting with one of his students in Jeff Moore's office, putting on a one-man show for a one-person audience - a silent one person audience.

"He was very pleasant and nice but I was doing all the talking," White said. "I told him this is what we want to do and waving my arms around a lot. He was just looking at us and being pleasant. I think he said something like 'yeah, well, it sounds interesting, I'll think about it.'"

Moore was actually thinking he already had enough projects, thank you, on his plate without adding another. But White isn't the type to give up easily, so after not hearing back from Moore he went to visit him again.

"I guess Jeff just thought 'well I'm not going to get rid of him unless I say something,' so he started saying a few things," White said. "So it just sort of organically evolved from that point forward."

What evolved was a collaboration that not only led to a seminal paper on self-healing materials published in Nature in 2001, but also to a longstanding partnership between Moore, White, and Nancy Sottos that could serve as a model for doing interdisciplinary research.

Sottos is a faculty member in the Materials Science and Engineering Department, while White is from Aerospace Engineering, and Moore from Chemistry. They are key members of the Beckman Institute's Autonomous Materials System group who have seen their initial success with the Nature paper validated as their work now serves as a pillar for this fastgrowing research area. The work has also expanded into a research line for the trio that is generating new discoveries and attracting increased funding.

Sometimes researchers will collaborate over a number of years as these three have, but the approach of Sottos, White, and Moore to research and to working with each other and with students is as distinctive as it is successful. Their students may come from different disciplines but they often become blended in projects as interdisciplinary interactions are the norm in their group. Their research efforts draw a lot of attention but all three are happy to share the spotlight with each other and with students.

In a previous article, Moore described the partnership this way: "After working with someone that long you find mutual interests and I just enjoy being with them. My life at the University of Illinois is greatly enhanced by this group and that's not just lip service. I can tell you honestly there is probably a good chance I wouldn't be here right now if it wasn't for the connections I have with this group."

Recently, the trio sat down for an interview session to talk about the origins of their partnership and their first paper on selfhealing materials, as well their approaches to research and working with students and each other.