by Jeffrey Mervis
THUWAL, SAUDI ARABIA—King Abdullah opened the kingdom of Saudi Arabia today to a throng of foreign dignitaries, government officials, scientists, and guests to show off his new King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST).
The multi-billion dollar project is a graduate institution with designs on crashing a list of the world's top 20 research universities. It's a tall order for a school that sits on a 32 sq. km. slab of desert that hugs the Red Sea north of Jeddah, the country's second largest city. But the 70-odd scientists that form the founding faculty—along with 400 students who began classes on 5 September—won't be lacking for money or equipment.
The king has put his considerable power and authority behind the university, a message reinforced by holding the inaugural ceremony on the country's National Day holiday. He's hoping that KAUST will help to move the country from an oil-based to a knowledge-based economy, a task that the university's president, Choon Fong Shih, expresses with a simple formula: "Hire the best minds and find practical applications for their discoveries."
In addition to tapping $1.5 billion in core facilities that include the first supercomputer in the region, an industrial-class a nofabrication lab, a top-rated visualization center, and a dozen state-of-the-art nuclear magnetic resonance machines, faculty members will get from $400,000 to $800,000 apiece per year for 5 years to outfit and staff their labs.
The chance to spend their time on research rather than grant applications has been a big drawing card, say faculty members, who come from around the world: About 20% hail from the United States, and another 30% left jobs in Germany, Canada, and China to come to KAUST. The student body is equally diverse geographically: Saudis comprise about 15% of the first class, followed closely by China, Mexico, and the United States. The school's endowment is $10 billion.
In addition the being the first university in the country to allow the mixing of men and women in both the classroom and the lab, KAUST has abandoned the usual departments in favor of interdisciplinary research centers. Each center targets an important challenge for the country, from improved desalination techniques and growing crops resistant to drought and salt to the massive production and distribution of solar energy. It also plans to examine all facets of the Red Sea ecosystem, a relatively unexplored body of water.
Speaking at the inauguration, Shih predicted success within a generation. "I can see the cover of The Economist in its issue of September 2029. 'Sea water and solar power green the desert. KAUST scientists and entrepreneurs tell their story.' " The proof will come in publications, patents, and products. But few in the audience are betting against him.
Does a multi-billion project in and of itself make a genuinely world-class scientific institution? Not in my opinion.
I lived in Saudi Arabia in the 80's, off-and-on, around "turnaround visas." In Riyadh, there were beheadings of men and shootings of women at "chop-square," near the main mosque where imams preached sermons with machine-gun volume and cadences. Soldiers with rifles stood constant guard at street corners; the religious police constantly surveilled the souqs; women--veiled--walked behind men; my Saudi colleagues, cordial on the surface, revealed deep hostility (a cover for envy, I think) to Western culture. I saw the walls around everything, both physical and cultural. In conversations, educated Saudis spoke of the Jinn and of the literal four corners of the spherical earth. If SA wasn't a religious police state, with all that that implies (or denies) for an open scientific atmosphere, then it put on a pretty good masquerade, in my humble opion. Yes, this was in the 80's. Is it any different now? I don't know, though I am sceptical. It is hard for me to imagine. A place to rival MIT? Please.
Does a multi-billion project in and of itself make a genuinely world-class scientific institution? Not in my opinion.
I lived in Saudi Arabia in the 80's, off-and-on, around "turnaround visas." In Riyadh, there were beheadings of men and shootings of women at "chop-square," near the main mosque where imams preached sermons with machine-gun volume and cadences. Soldiers with rifles stood constant guard at street corners; the religious police constantly surveilled the souqs; women--veiled--walked behind men; my Saudi colleagues, cordial on the surface, revealed deep hostility (a cover for envy, I think) to Western culture. I saw the walls around everything, both physical and cultural. In conversations, educated Saudis spoke of the Jinn and of the literal four corners of the spherical earth. If SA wasn't a religious police state, with all that that implies (or denies) for an open scientific atmosphere, then it put on a pretty good masquerade, in my humble opion. Yes, this was in the 80's. Is it any different now? I don't know, though I am sceptical. It is hard for me to imagine. A place to rival MIT? Please.
I disagree with Sarah and Tawhid. No matter how much money they put on this, it will still be a Wahhabi dominated, tyrant funded medieval country, where women are treated as property. And Tawhid -- Saudi Arabia a safe country?? LOL ... don't they keep beheading dissidents for slightest protest against their fat tyrant king? What kind of Islam allows a king anyway? Isn't Islam supposed to be a democracy?
It will just be like Shaddad's paradise -- all glittery, but devoid of substance.
The comment by "theboob bob" show the level of ignorance in the world today. While I bet my money he's never travelled beyond the border of his country, yet he is speaking as an expert on what it is like in Saudi Arabia, and considering his sources, the picture he draws is not a surprise.
In reality, by the modest statistics, women are beaten in the US more than any other country, and while some cases do occur in Saudi, it is well below average unlike the propeganda that western media spreads.
Second, Jews, Christians, Atheists live and work freely in Saudi Arabia since its establishment, they are not only "free to stay within compound walls".
Third, this is a top research establishment and I doubt that the most concern for the people in it is Beer... it is not a undergrad party college.
Finally, you really should read or travel more before you start talking about things you don't even know
Jews, Christians and Atheists will all be free to stay within the compound walls. Outside, women will still be beaten for driving. Beers after work? Not if you don't want a whipping. The Nazis did good science too.
What kind of weird medieval fantasy is King Abdullah trying to create? Way too weird!