GRP TECHNICAL SYMPOSIUM SPEECH
LAUNCHING AN EXTRAORDINARY MISSION
A Global Research University at the Intersection of East and West
KAUST’s Extraordinary Mission
We are here today to witness something extraordinary – the launch of [King Abdullah University of Science and Technology] KAUST’s Global Research Partnership (GRP). The GRP constitutes a key feature of KAUST’s extraordinary mission. This mission is to realize the vision of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah to build a new “House of Wisdom”, which will be a “beacon for peace, hope and reconciliation… [serving] the people of the Kingdom and [benefiting] all the peoples of the world.” This bold vision has captured the imagination of many peoples, from East to West. We are gathered here today because we are an integral part of this vision.
Building a university from scratch is no easy task. It is never dull, and it is surely an adventure. Pioneering this bold endeavor was an early group of stout-hearted individuals. They are not unlike the early explorers of old, who journeyed into uncharted seas. I am speaking here of the interim management team led so ably by Nadhmi Al-Nasr, and including Mohamed Samaha, Ahmed Khowaiter, Ed Hundert as well as others too numerous to name. People like Frank Press, former President of the US National Academy of Sciences, and Frank Rhodes, President Emeritus of Cornell University, freely shared their ideas and expertise. I’m also delighted that Fawwaz Ulaby has already come on board full-time as our founding Provost. Let us take this moment to acknowledge the dedication, efforts and creativity of all these pioneers who have brought us to this milestone in our journey.
His Excellency Minister Naimi touched on KAUST’s three big goals – to advance science and technology, to diversify the Kingdom’s economy, and to be a catalyst for transforming people’s lives in a significant way.
Personally, I find myself inspired by the immensity and challenge of the vision and goals for KAUST. I also find them very humbling. I believe I speak for many of us who are scientists and engineers that we chose our fields because we enjoy what we do. We love the discovery, the creation, and the application of knowledge. I think most would say that we are very lucky to do what we love. On top of the personal fulfillment, we find that our research can improve the lives of others, that scientific thinking can help individuals innovate, that technology often drives economic growth. Knowing that science and scientists, at our best, can help do all these, does bring great pride and joy.
In KAUST, we have an opportunity to create something of a size and scope never before seen, in a time frame few can conceive. It was Daniel Burnham, architect of modern Chicago, who said, “Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood.”
Building KAUST is no little plan. To succeed, we will need to build momentum. It is my hope that we shall work together with one heart and mind to achieve this in one generation, by 2040. When KAUST stands among the world’s best research universities, we will have accomplished our extraordinary mission.
Powering our Extraordinary Mission
On our extraordinary mission, I see three engines propelling us.
Enabling Resources, Supportive Environment
The first engine is KAUST’s enabling resources, with state-of-the-art infrastructure and research facilities, combined with a supportive environment.
Our faculty will enjoy funding, freedom and a supportive environment: research funding generous both in quantum and in duration; freedom to focus on doing science of the highest caliber; and an environment that enables them to scale peaks of scientific excellence. In a time when this is becoming a challenge in other parts of the world, the generosity and vision of King Abdullah and the people of Saudi Arabia in providing for this is both strategic and inspiring.
KAUST represents a paradigm shift – an intellectual, organizational innovation – to conduct high impact research unconstrained by disciplinary boundaries, to create a new ecosystem for research unfettered by organizational strictures. An innovation of KAUST’s supportive environment is its matrix arrangement of Research Centers and Academic Divisions. Collectively they support the academic mission of research and teaching.
The Research Centers constitute the core of KAUST. These Centers are interdisciplinary as well as strategic in nature. Focusing on thematic areas, they interface with the GRP Centers and KAUST Investigators and Fellows.
Academic Divisions reflect fundamental knowledge areas pertinent to KAUST’s academic and research mission. Responsible for curriculum, teaching, and degree programs, the Divisions provide academic affiliation for faculty and students. Through the Divisions, KAUST will offer degrees in a range of engineering specializations, the biological sciences, and the mathematical and computational sciences. To further support our academic mission, the Divisions interface with the Academic Excellence Alliance, or AEA, which are partnerships between KAUST and select world-class universities.
The matrix structure frees KAUST’s academic and research activities from traditional disciplinary boundaries. It is designed to balance dynamism and agility with robustness and stability.
KAUST’s supportive environment will be imbued with an entrepreneurial dimension. A liberal intellectual property policy will better enable researchers to seize opportunities to commercialize and create value from their research to contribute to a knowledge-based economy and to benefit society.
Moreover, KAUST’s Research Park and Innovation Center make up a “free enterprise zone,” where innovation and entrepreneurship are freed from traditional rules, allowing greater flexibility and faster response. It is a platform to push the boundaries of best entrepreneurial practices and launch major innovations.
When the campus is ready, standing tall at Thuwal Point will be our Breakwater Beacon. It is, for me, a potent and steadfast symbol of KAUST as a beacon for hope and progress. For me, Breakwater Beacon is like a lighthouse at the intersection of East and West, saying to all, “here is a harbor where you may flourish.”
Critical Mass of Inventive Minds
KAUST, however, is not just another well-endowed research university. Our Breakwater Beacon also speaks of a role for KAUST as a port in the global knowledge marketplace. I envision KAUST as a place where there is a rich interplay of knowledge creation, innovation and enterprise. It is akin to an open port enriching its hinterland. Our knowledge port at the intersection of East and West will be a confluence – flows of diverse talents will bring fresh ideas and dynamic approaches, advancing the frontiers of science and addressing grand challenges. This then is the second engine for KAUST – a knowledge port with a critical mass of inventive minds.
The top minds we are recruiting bring with them what I call the three BIGs – big ideas, big ambitions, big impact. We are looking for people with the drive and courage to engage in research of high risk with high return. We are looking for people who want to live, play and work with other people who have big ideas, big ambitions and aim for big impact.
These exceptional people are joining KAUST through multiple paths. We have direct recruiting, talent sharing, dual appointments, as well as the AEA and GRP. Both the AEA and GRP link KAUST to world-class, university-based research spanning the globe – from England, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, America, Canada, Japan, to Taiwan. In particular, the AEA partners are helping recruit top-notch researchers as founding faculty.
Exemplifying the three BIGs, our KAUST Investigators are exceptional scientists and engineers with promise for ground-breaking work in areas of global significance.
Take for instance, Ted Sargent and Nicholas Harberd. Ted is exploiting nanotechnology to create low-cost, high-efficiency, environmentally-friendly solar cells. Nicholas is developing cost-efficient food and staple crops that will grow in hot arid lands and brackish water. Ted, Nicholas and our other 10 KAUST Investigators all embody big ideas, driven by big ambitions, with the potential for big impact. Their work can radically change the global science and technology landscape, for the betterment of the world.
KAUST will be more than just a collection of state-of-the-art research buildings. KAUST will be more than just a collection of talented faculty, staff and students. KAUST will be a global intellectual community at the intersection of East and West, where each member contributes to making KAUST a special home for all.
We aim for the Red Sea to be recognized the world over as a knowledge port with inventive minds and world-class talents creating and applying knowledge to drive economic growth. I also look forward to KAUST on the Red Sea becoming a regular port of call for academics crisscrossing the globe, to stop off and hang out over coffee, stuffed dates and Patchi chocolates, while engaging in rigorous intellectual discourse and hatching great research ideas.
At the Leading Edge of a 21st Century Paradigm for Global Collaboration
KAUST’s third engine for its extraordinary mission is an innovative strategy of alliances and networks transcending continents, communities and cultures.
Historically, universities seemed to have internationalized in two ways. Until the end of the 20t century, the leading universities positioned themselves as preeminent seats of knowledge. The best and brightest from around the world were drawn to centers and repositories of knowledge, whether it was Alexandria and Athens; the Houses of Wisdom in Baghdad and Cairo; or Cambridge, England and Cambridge, New England. Let’s call this the seat-of-knowledge model.
Leading up to and into the 21st century, universities seeking to extend their global reach began setting up overseas satellite campuses. These universities generally brought their own intellectual and cultural DNA to the outposts. This strategy of internationalization often involved an unbalanced arrangement, sometimes to the disproportionate advantage of the parent institution. Let’s call this the MNC – multi-national corporation – model.
In the 21st century we are witnessing the beginnings of a paradigm shift in global collaboration in research and higher education. These collaborative arrangements focus on developing meaningful and non-exclusive partnerships that leverage strengths and complementarities. The intellectual openness and diversity create strength and synergy, where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. As Albert Einstein puts it, "The free, unhampered exchange of ideas and scientific conclusions is necessary for the sound development of science."
KAUST is positioning itself at the leading edge of this paradigm shift. Building on multiple levels of partnerships, ranging from those between individual researchers to institutional partnerships, our strategy crisscrosses disciplines, cultures and continents. I see the GRP as an essential part of KAUST’s evolving poly-nexus model of global collaboration.
In the poly-nexus model, the multi-way flow of ideas, knowledge and of people from different cultures enables cross-fertilization for the best scientific ideas and innovations to emerge and flourish. Leveraging intellectual and cultural diversity, the resulting synergy will contribute to building critical mass of talents for research and education. The poly-nexus model allows us to transcend the boundaries of geography, culture, and disciplines.
Our GRP researchers constitute a coalition of brilliant minds, big ideas and bold ambitions. They are a vital component of the global research university we are building at the intersection of East and West. This intersection of minds, ideas, institutions and cultures promises to spark truly ground-breaking science.
Take for example the Oxford GRP Center, which uses applied math to branch out into multiple fields, including biology, online search engines, and oil recovery. Another example is the Cornell GRP Center. It is partnering seven other research universities to leverage diverse disciplines, ranging from chemistry to engineering and membranes, with wide applications ranging from CO2 capture and sequestration, photovoltaics, water desalination, and oil and gas production.
The collaborative and interdisciplinary nature of the GRP embodies an unfettered intellectual spirit, with the space to focus on challenging problems and the singular goal of facilitating research of the highest quality. For instance, the Stanford Center and the KFUPM Center-in-Development will both address the grand challenge of energy sustainability. The GRP facilitates the kind of new thinking necessary to address the grand challenges of our time, including those concerning energy, the environment, water and food.
What is exciting is that the GRP Centers, together with the KAUST Investigators and Fellows, have the potential to accomplish what would amount to a sea change: to turn the sun from a source of untapped heat to a bountiful source of renewable energy, to make salt water and desert sand yield life-giving water and arable land, to turn low yield desert vegetation into high yield food crops. They hold promise to make a difference and improve lives everywhere.
Unprecedented Opportunity for Transformation
Margaret Mead, the well-known anthropologist, once said, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
We are that group of thoughtful, committed people – with courage, ambition and imagination. Thanks to the vision and generosity of King Abdullah and the people of Saudi Arabia, we have an unprecedented opportunity to make this kind of positive change.
To our friends in Saudi Arabia, our global community looks forward to making our home with you, appreciating your rich traditions, and working alongside you. We also look forward to helping build KAUST as a dynamic knowledge port at the intersection of East and West, bringing benefits in your lives and your children's and their children's as well.
KAUST may still be in its infancy. Yet, its lineage is distinguished. During the Golden Age of Islam, the Islamic world contributed much to the world of science. KAUST, in striving to deliver science and technology of the highest quality and impact, can aspire to rekindle the Islamic spirit of scientific inquiry.
As Abdus Salam, Nobel Laureate in Physics, put so succinctly: “Scientific thought and its creation is the common and shared heritage of mankind.” KAUST, as a global research university, a new House of Wisdom, will help rekindle this shared heritage for Saudi Arabia.
Thank you.
President's Biography Press Release Fact Sheet Photos