KAUST CEREMONIAL SPEECHES

Watch Dr. Vest's Speech

Introduction and Context

Your Excellencies, fellow academic colleagues, and ladies and gentlemen,

It is an honor and an inspirational opportunity to participate in this symposium celebrating the establishment of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). I foresee that later in this century we will look back on this day as a seminal moment in the history of higher education, and that we will salute the wisdom of those who conceived, implemented, and sustained the founding vision of KAUST.

Great universities seek to understand the past, engage the present, and shape the future. Universities that have a strong focus on science and technology have a particular responsibility to engage the present and shape the future, but they too must understand the past and learn its lessons to fully comprehend that they are at the core of the flow of human history and essential to human progress.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) that I have served for 17 years was established almost 150 years ago. It was founded to be a new and different kind of institution to serve the purposes of the emerging Industrial Age in the United States.

Also 150 years ago, President Abraham Lincoln and the United States Congress chartered the National Academy of Sciences, whose subsequent evolution included the establishment of the National Academy of Engineering in 1964 in recognition of the centrality of engineering to the Age of Technology.

Today, in 2007, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, KAUST has been founded to be a different kind of institution to serve the purposes of the emerging Knowledge Age in the Kingdom, and indeed throughout our interconnected and interdependent world.

This is a noble and farsighted undertaking. It is also a voyage into the unknown. Kaust has set its compass by consulting widely and learning lessons from the experiences of great research universities throughout the world. But the founders of KAUST also understand the value of a fresh start, the uniqueness of its location, the necessity of its engagement with the world community, and its orientation toward the future.

Opportunity

Research universities create opportunity. They create opportunity for individual students by inspiring them, educating them, orienting them toward the future, teaching them that they are responsible for their own lives, and preparing them to advance the human condition. Research universities also create opportunities for industries, cities, nations, and regions by preparing educated citizens and by direct application of the new knowledge, new understandings, and new technologies that flow from their research and scholarship. Research universities create opportunity for our earth and all its people because knowledge and understanding pave the path to peace, and because scientific knowledge and engineering capabilities are essential for meeting the great global challenges of energy, water, environmental sustainability, food, health, and security.

Only through the lives, work, and leadership of those who are advantaged by education, research, and knowledge can we hope to advance the prosperity and quality of life of our world’s population – a population that has doubled in my lifetime and may approach nine billion people by mid-century.

Globalization of the Research University

The structure and philosophy of the modern research university are largely derived from those developed at Humboldt University in Germany in the early 19th century. The essential element of the modern research university is its commitment to combining teaching and research in a single institution. This new approach to higher education migrated across the Atlantic Ocean and took root in the United States at the Johns Hopkins University. From there, it diffused across North America and throughout Europe as new universities were established and as research became a more central purpose of already mature universities. At each stage and location, the structure was modified and adapted to fit local contexts and purposes and to both lead and adapt to advancing knowledge and changing societal needs.

As the Age of Technology advanced in the second half of the 20th century, the research university migrated and evolved further, as is well symbolized by the establishment and rapid rise of the Indian Institutes of Technology and by the establishment or transformation of many research universities in Asia. This part of the journey of research universities is noteworthy because when each of them was established, its founders thoughtfully engaged the leaders of universities around the world not only to learn their lessons and understand their structure, governance, and operations, but also to adapt them to new contexts, to shape them for new ages, and to understand them as tools for creating new opportunities.

There are many lessons to be learned from this evolution, migration, and globalization of research universities. I would like to discuss six lessons that the research university of the 21st century can learn from the research university experience in the 20th century.

Lesson 1: Teaching and research must be intimately intertwined.

The first lesson is that teaching and research must be intimately intertwined and must be assigned equal importance. Teaching and research are inseparable, and it is their synergy that defines the essence of a research university.

Many years ago, Fredrick Terman, then the provost of Stanford University, was asked whether he wanted Stanford to be a teaching institution or a research institution. He answered that he wanted it to be a learning institution. The research university of the 21st century must also be devoted to learning in this broad sense – learning through discovery as well as learning through teaching and exploration of the past.

In the long run, making universities exciting, creative, adventurous, rigorous, demanding, and empowering milieus is more important than specifying curricular details.

Lesson 2: The quality of a research university is determined by the quality of its faculty.

The second lesson is that the quality of a research university can be no better than the quality of its faculty. The faculty defines the research university. The research university of the 21st century must strive to attract, nurture, and empower the very best professors. This essential task of building a world-class faculty will require commitment, fortitude, patience, and adherence to high academic values as well as aspirations. Some well-experienced, excellent senior professors can and should be hired, but in the end it is also important that young faculty grow up through the ranks of the university.

Lesson 3: Science can flourish only in an open environment.

Lesson 3 is that science can flourish only in an open environment. Science languishes in a closed environment. The free flow of people and ideas across institutional and political boundaries is essential to the functioning of a great university. The very process of conducting science requires that others challenge one’s hypotheses, independently verify the results of experiments, and validate theoretical conclusions. Science cannot be done in isolation. And, of course, interactions among scholars, scientists, and engineers who have diverse perspectives and varied experiences lead to creativity and innovation. Such interchange is the very essence of a research university. Maintaining an intellectually open environment requires a high degree of institutional autonomy and protection from political or ideological forces.

Lesson 4: Young faculty must be free to study and teach what they believe is important.

Lesson 4 is that it is essential to give great freedom to new, young faculty members to study and teach what they believe is important. They should not function as research assistants to senior professors. The wisdom and perspective of senior scholars is important, but most dramatic new insights and innovations come from brilliant young men and women. The freshness from young faculty and from the continual flow of students to the institution is key to a great research university. But with great intellectual freedom comes equally great responsibility. Thus faculty, even early in their careers, must always be held to the highest academic standards, especially through the evaluation and constructive criticism inherent in the peer review process.

Lesson 5: Competition engenders excellence in higher education.

Lesson 5 is that competition – competition among universities to attract and retain the best faculty and students, and competition among professors and research groups in the free marketplace of ideas – engenders excellence. Such interinstitutional competition may at first seem expensive, inefficient, and complicated, especially because today’s universities compete on a global scale. Nonetheless, competition drives improvements in research, teaching, educational policies, working environments, facilities, and most importantly, in ideas and people. Great professors attract great students, and great students attract great professors.

Lesson 6: Fundamental scholarship and research must exist on an equal plane with applied research and innovation.

Lesson 6 is that fundamental scholarship and research must exist on an equal plane with applied research and innovation. As we enter the 21st century, we are very aware that research universities create opportunity for nations and regions through the transfer of technology and innovation to the marketplace. Industrially relevant work is increasingly important, and an environment that is entrepreneurial also gives relevance to education.

However, there is a danger that in our rush to solve practical problems and transfer technology to industry, we could lose our bearings and forget the still more profound purposes of universities to discover truths about nature, celebrate ideas, and advance the human spirit. We must not allow universities to become overly utilitarian. Universities are places where ideas must be exchanged, evaluated, and integrated.

Even in a university like KAUST that is centered on science and technology, fundamental, curiosity-driven research conducted to discover truths about nature must play a central role equal to that of research which is applied quite directly to industry and to the solution of major problems facing humankind. At MIT, pure scholarship and research exist side by side, and, indeed, hand in hand with highly applied work. Both are conducted with mutual respect. Both are valued. Both are subjected to the same rigorous standards, and they inform each other. I believe this is one of the primary reasons that MIT grew to great stature in the world of universities.

The Role of Information Technology

The research university of the 21st century will be embedded in a world linked together by information technology. The development and global spread of the Internet and the World Wide Web have fundamentally changed the ways in which we work and learn. I believe that openness and sharing of intellectual resources and teaching materials – not closely controlled point-to-point teaching at a distance – will emerge as a dominant ethos of global higher education. Sharing resources globally is a highly appropriate and natural application of the democratizing, liberating nature of the Internet and World Wide Web.

Day-to-day communication and data transfer among scholars and researchers is already totally dominated by Internet communication. Virtual communities of researchers come together both formally and informally to collaborate, discuss, and even to remotely operate facilities such as large telescopes. Indeed, the world’s cyberinfrastructure is now critically important to the conduct of scientific and engineering research.

Large, accessible scholarly digital archives are growing and heavily subscribed. MIT’s OpenCourseWare initiative makes the teaching materials for 1800 courses available on-line and free of charge for teachers and learners everywhere. From this beginning, an expansion of first-rate open access teaching materials is developing in the U.S., Asia, and Europe.

In my view, a global Meta University is emerging. This Meta University consists of the cyberinfrastructure, scholarly digital archives, open-access teaching materials, and virtual communities of scholars and researchers. It is the substrate on which the 21st century research university will be built. Like the computer operating system Linux, knowledge creation and teaching at each university will be elevated by the efforts of a multitude of individuals and groups all over the world. The Meta University will rapidly adapt to the changing learning styles of students who have grown up in a computationally rich environment. The greatest benefits of the Meta University will accrue to developing nations because such shared resources can accelerate and reduce the cost of the development of new schools, colleges, and universities.

This Meta University will develop because nation after nation is committed to enhancing and expanding their higher education, and because there are global efficiencies and economies of scale to be had by sharing high-quality materials and systems that collectively are too expensive for each institution to develop independently. This kind of sharing is not prescriptive, is not paternalistic, and it need not be politically or culturally laden, because each individual institution, professor, or learner is free to use only those parts of the material he or she chooses, and may adapt, modify, or add to it in fulfillment of local needs, pedagogy, and context. Campuses will still be important, and universities will still compete for resources, faculty, students, and prestige, but they will do so on a digital platform of shared information, materials and experience that will raise quality and access all around the world.

The Frontiers of Science and Engineering

We live in the most exciting era of science and technology in human history. This adds rich context and substance to the founding of KAUST.

Recent decades have seen remarkable and rapid advances in the technological tools with which to do science. Science, in turn, has led to new technological products and processes.

Computational power and digital storage are ever accelerating as the number of transistors that can be inexpensively placed on a computer chip continues to follow what is known as Moore’s Law by doubling every two years. We are progressing rapidly in our understanding of biology – the science of life – having developed deep knowledge of how individual cells function, discerned the structure of DNA, sequenced the human genome, and learned how organisms develop. Every day brings new insights into the nature of the human brain and mind, and we anticipate great advances in cognitive science and neuroscience in the 21st century.

This is a very exciting period for mathematics. In the last few decades, several long-standing mathematical puzzles have been resolved. Fermat’s Last Theorem and Poincare’s conjecture have been proven. New synergies between pure mathematics and computational mathematics have been established.

There is every reason to expect that in the coming decades physical science will also advance rapidly. We are likely to gain great insights into such cosmological mysteries as the nature of dark energy that is hypothesized to permeate the universe, dark matter whose unseen presence has been inferred, and gravitational waves that are as yet undetected but are expected fluctuations in Einstein’s spacetime.

Today there are two primary frontiers of engineering. One is the bio-nano-info frontier. This is the province of things that are becoming smaller and smaller, faster and faster, and more and more complex. The work at this frontier combines the power of physical science, life science, and information science. At this frontier, materials and devices are assembled by manipulating individual atoms. Here the distinction between science and engineering has essentially disappeared. Many fundamental disciplines are required to work together, and progress is almost always made by teams of researchers, rather than by individuals. Developing the interdisciplinary organizations needed to work and learn at this frontier is critically important. The curricula of the research university of the 21st century must also reflect the interdependence and synergy of traditional disciplines.

The second frontier is the macro systems frontier. This is the province of things that are becoming larger and larger, more and more complex, and that are of great societal importance. Work at this frontier advances humankind’s agenda in energy, water, environment, food, sustainability, manufacturing, logistics, civil infrastructure, and security. The work at this frontier is mostly done by engineers, but to achieve great goals these engineers need to collaborate with colleagues from economics, management, the social sciences, law, public policy, and the arts and humanities. Organizing the collaborative structures and education needed to work and learn at this frontier is also critically important to the research university of the 21st century.

Much of the excitement and potential of the future of engineering will come from bridging these frontiers as nanoscale science, synthetic biology, biomemetics, etc., are applied to real needs of real people on a grand scale. New ways of designing and manufacturing materials that leave much smaller environmental footprints will be developed. Genetically engineered microorganisms will be used to convert cellulosic plant materials to new fuels for transportation needs. The time and cost of sequencing and analyzing the genomes of individual men and women will drop precipitously and make possible personalized, predictive medicine, i.e., detecting individual’s susceptibility to specific diseases and treating them before they actually become ill.

Small-scale science and engineering will drive new approaches to our largest and most important systems. We will learn from nature how to become better engineers who use natural resources and energy much more sparingly and efficiently. We will also learn to use genetically engineered organisms to perform manufacturing operations and will use the beautiful and complex molecular structures found in nature as templates for engineered materials and systems that will find application in solving energy and environmental challenges.

Research universities produced some of the most profoundly important innovations of the 20th century. Among the innovations in which universities played the sole or dominant role are computers, the laser, the Internet, the fundamentals of the Global Positioning System, numerically controlled machining, the organization and deployment of the World Wide Web, financial engineering, the genetic revolution, and much of modern medicine.

We have every reason to believe that the research university of the 21st century will play an equally central, profound, and, indeed, indispensable role in the period of great innovation that lies ahead.

Excellence, Competition, and Cooperation

Earlier I suggested that a key lesson from 20th century research universities is that competition – competition among universities to attract and retain the best faculty and students and competition among professors and research groups in the free marketplace of ideas – engenders excellence. However, it is a paradox of this age that we all must cooperate as well as compete.

The 21st century is an age when we cannot compete nationalistically based on geography, natural resources, or military might. Nations, regions, and universities can only prosper and compete based on brainpower and innovation. Because brainpower and innovation know no political or geographic boundaries, the fact is we must all cooperate and compete. In my view, there is no domain of human activity in which global cooperation is more desirable than in education. It is in the interest of all people that education be available and effective worldwide. This includes the kind of “high-end” education conducted in research universities.

There are many emerging models for cooperation among research universities. A well-established university from one country can establish a campus or a research facility in another country. This can be very effective, especially in the near term, but unless very clear missions and strategies are mutually agreed upon, this may not be the best way to build and sustain intellectual infrastructure and excellence in the host country over the long run.

Institutions can form strategic alliances to which each partner brings something of value to the other partner. For example, a European university may form an alliance with an Asian university to study tropical diseases or indigenous plants and animals to which they would otherwise have no access. Of course the faculty and students from both sides can share unique knowledge and scientific techniques.

Rather than physical presence, universities can cooperate by virtual presence, i.e., by distance education – the conduct of courses using Internet and television. This certainly has its role, but frequently becomes a one-way street rather than deep collaboration.

In my view, KAUST is proposing a rather unique model to meet its challenge of developing competitive forces for its research and advanced education through its Academic Excellence Alliances, Research Collaborations, Special Research Centers, Discovery Scholarships, and the King Abdullah Professorships and Scholar Awards. These programs, carefully, thoughtfully, and patiently administered, will build a globally competitive university, and simultaneously will embed KAUST in fruitful international collaborations.

Concluding Comments

We live in an age characterized by two opposing trends – integration and fragmentation. Because of modern travel, commerce, and communications, all regions and all peoples of the earth are increasingly linked and integrated. We are also linked and integrated because we inhabit a single planet. We share its thin and fragile environment. We share its ecosystems and its finite resources. We are linked and integrated by the common desire of people everywhere to live peacefully and in good health. We are linked and integrated by our common curiosity about the world, the universe, and each other. We are linked by the knowledge and understanding developed by many people in many places, in many periods of history.

Yet at the same time, forces new and old cause us to fragment, to divide ourselves along fault lines of culture, history, geography, misunderstanding, and fear of the unfamiliar.

Those of us gathered here today share a common belief that the dominant trend of this age must be linkage and integration, not fragmentation. We believe that education, learning, discovery, and creation of opportunity will bind us together and enable us to collectively build peace and prosperity, and to face the challenges of living together on this earth. We believe that knowledge and its wise use will elevate the quality of life all around the world. We believe that science and technology can play a central, and, indeed, essential role in this quest.

For this reason, we have much to celebrate as King Abdullah University of Science and Technology is launched on its journey into the future. In this Knowledge Age, the research university of the 21st century can and must be a great force for enlightenment, for integration, and for prosperity. The research university of the 21st century should not flourish only in one nation, or on one continent, or in one region. It should grow and spread its good works in all regions and on behalf of all people.

So it is with pride and humility that I participate in this celebration. I salute the vision of KAUST and look forward to its role in spreading the richness of research, advanced education, and opportunity to Saudi Arabia, to the Middle East, and throughout the world.