2004年，美国海军核潜艇总司令瑞克瓦在上海成立了一个精英教育中心（The Center for Excellence in Education），计划将于2006年为上海高校杰出的理科学生提供跨学科研究和培养的机会。
上海日报报道如下：
The Center for Excellence in Education, a non-profit organization founded by the father of the US nuclear Navy, Admiral Hyman Rickover, plans to begin training Shanghai's best and brightest in 2006.
The local program aims to help outstanding science students advance their careers through interdisciplinary research and exposure to world-class theoretical knowledge. Its design follows a model used by the US-based Research Science Institute.
Interdisciplinary表示“学科间的，跨学科的”，例如：The economics, history and political science departments organized an interdisciplinary seminar on Southeast Asia.（经济、历史及政治三个系共同举办了一个东南亚研讨会。）