Multidisciplinary programs have a venerable history, but most of the early history was either at big university equipment projects or at first-rate industrial laboratories. There has always been a small amount of interdisciplinarity, such as the physicist's or chemist's cadging crystal specimens from the geologist. But only in the post World War II period have substantial multi-disciplinary projects flourished in American universities. Renewed interest in multidisciplinary programs in universities prompted the Working Group on the "Capacity of Academic Science and Engineering" of the Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable to choose such programs as one of its principal interests in 1985. The purpose of the paper is to assemble, in a necessarily personal fashion, perspectives from past multidisciplinary programs as an aid to designers and supporters of future programs. Discussed are opportunities for multidisciplinary approaches, the role of the academic department, and the principles and practices of successful multidisciplinary programs. (CW)