Professor of Astronomy Alyssa A. Goodman, who served on the provost’s science committee last year, said in September that the future of science lies in interdisciplinary research, which administrators say the new space could facilitate.

“One of the biggest problems that Steve Hyman kept talking about [was] that future science is so interdisciplinary,” she said. “Certainly the boundaries between departments that exist today aren’t going to exist in the future.”

But some professors said they worry Allston would hamper interdisciplinary research. While science faculty acknowledge that they need more room, many have expressed concerns that splitting FAS science between both banks of the Charles could sever important interdepartmental connections.

“Splitting the sciences—that’s ridiculous [and] totally untenable,” Charles M. Marcus, professor of physics and a former member of the provost’s Advisory Group on Science, said in an interview last August, before Summers released his plan for a science hub in Allston.

Throughout the year, scientists expressed their separation anxiety and complained about not being consulted adequately in the planning process. Some seized on a February town hall meeting intended to solicit science proposals as a chance to voice their discontent to Kirby and other administrators.

During the year, the science and technology task force investigated 70 proposals for interdisciplinary work in Allston suggested by faculty, recommending 13 “promising areas of inquiry”: stem cell research, innovative computing, engineering and applied science, origins of life, quantum science, systems neuroscience, systems biology, chemical biology, global health, microbial science, environmental science, clinical research and collaborative science.

Such a science campus could attract outside firms in areas like biotechnology as well, as MIT has in Kendall Square. The idea was initially trumpeted as Allston consideration began a few years ago but has been downplayed over the past year.

Hyman, who chaired the science group, said his committee would solicit new science proposals in the fall. Although faculty are eager to begin building the proposed centers, no time frame has yet emerged for science construction, he said.

“My scientists want to start digging tomorrow,” Hyman said.

He added that Allston would allow planners to “really think about new kinds of labs” that would allow professors to break out of the current mold of lab classes.

“They’re very cookbook,” Hyman said. “It’s not the way science happens.”

FOLLOW THE LEADERS?

The committee charged with exploring the role of graduate schools in Allston endorsed the October plan of moving the education school from Cambridge and public health school from Longwood.

The Law School, which would have anchored a professional school-focused Allston campus, will remain in Cambridge, much to the relief of first-year Dean Elena Kagan and her faculty.

The public health school has already outgrown its dated, overcrowded Longwood compound. It already faces a shortage of 100,000 square feet, a deficit that is projected to grow substantially over the coming years.