VISIT OF STAS FEDEROFF TO KAUST GROUNDBREAKING

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 JEDDAH 000481

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR STAS FEDOROFF; U/S DOBRIANSKY; U/S HUGHES;
OES/AS MCMURRY; NEA/AS WELCH; S/P FOR GORDON

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/20/2017
TAGS: PGOV ECON TNGD TPHY KISL SA
SUBJECT: VISIT OF STAS FEDEROFF TO KAUST GROUNDBREAKING
CEREMONY

Classified By: Consul General Tatiana C. Gfoeller for Reasons 1.4 (c) a
nd (d).


1. (U) SUMMARY: The Science and Technology Adviser to the
Secretary attended the groundbreaking ceremony of the King

SIPDIS
Abdullah University for Science and Technology on October 21.
The university is part of a development plan to also include
a Petroleum Complex and King Abdullah Economic City, with the
goal of linking industry, commerce, education, business and
research. Research will focus on Energy and Environment,
Bioscience and Bioengineering, Material Science and
Engineering, and Applied Mathematics and Computational
Science. Saudi Aramco will play a large role in the
development of the coeducational school. Recruitment of
future students is now under way internationally. END
SUMMARY.

BREAKING NEW GROUND


2. (U) Dr. Nina Federoff, the Science and Technology Adviser
to Secretary Rice (STAS),accompanied by Jeddah Pol/Econ
Chief, attended the groundbreaking ceremony of the King
Abdullah University for Science and Technology (KAUST) in
Thuwal on October 21. The university, which has an expected
completion date of 2009, will be a coeducational
graduate-level research institution at an estimated cost of
over twelve billion dollars. It will have one of the ten
largest endowments in the world, worth more than ten billion
dodlars. The King,s objective is to make the university a
lighthouse of knowledge, to serve as a bridge between
cultures and nations, and to help Saudi Arabia advance within
the world in the fields of science and technology.


3. (U) The ceremony was attended by King Abdullah; Crown
Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz; Prince Miteb bin Abdulaziz,
Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs; Prince Khalid
Al-Faisal, the Governor of Mecca; and many other princes,
ministers and senior officials. The ceremony was also
attended by foreign dignitaries and members of the diplomatic
community, including Frances Townsend; Ambassador Ford
Fraker; Ali Babacan, the Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs;
Claude Gyan, Secretary General of France; and members of
KAUST,s International Advisory Council.

KING ABDULLAH'S DREAM


4. (U) The KAUST site encompasses 36 million square meters
near Thuwal, a small fishing village located on the Red Sea
approximately fifty miles north of Jeddah. The location was
selected as part of a large master development plan that will
stretch from Thuwal to Rabigh and will include a Petroleum
Complex (PetroRabigh),King Abdullah Economic City and KAUST.
Once the area is developed, it will link industry, commerce,
education, business and research.


5. (U) The King's dream is for the university to become a
world-class institution, able to contribute to the
global-research enterprise, with emphasis on four programs:
Energy and Environment, Bioscience and Bioengineering,
Material Science and Engineering, and Applied Mathematics and
Computational Science. KAUST will have a faculty of the
highest caliber, able to formulate value added research
projects. English language will be the medium of instruction
at the university, which will be modeled after institutions
such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and
Stanford University.


6. (U) The research agenda aims to accelerate scientific
discovery and technological innovation. The strategy involves
flexible funding, outreach to potential partner institutions,
and targeted investments in physical and intellectual
infrastructure in order to stimulate collaboration with
research universities around the world, as well as the
private sector. KAUST will also work with other universities
in Saudi Arabia, including King Fahd University on Petroleum
and Minerals, King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah and King
Saud University in Riyadh. KAUST will be geared toward
attracting the brightest students; its admissions
requirements will be extremely high, and students will have
to compete intensively to enter.

SAUDI ARAMCO'S ROLE


7. (U) The development of KAUST as an independent,
high-quality research university has been tasked by the King

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to Saudi Aramco, the world's largest producer of petroleum.
Aramco will provide leadership for he development of both
the campus and the initial organizational and academic
management. Aramco is supported by a distinguished
International Advisory Council and a team of leading
consultants in academic and research design and physical
planning. The company was selected because it has a 75-year
history of delivering results under the most difficult
circumstances, and because it has extensive experience in the
execution of mega-projects, training, and dealing with
students.

RECRUITMENT OF STUDENTS


8. (U) KAUST has launched a Discovery Scholarship Program
which focuses on undergraduate students outside the Kingdom
in their second and third years of study, with the objective
of having them join KAUST when it opens in 2009.
Scholarships will be awarded to talented students at their
current home institutions and will cover tuition, lodging and
living stipends, books and computer allowances, and summer
and career enrichment programs. Recruitment of scholarship
recipients is now under way around the world.

THE ROLE OF WOMEN


9. (U) Dr. Frank H.T. Rhodes, former President of Cornell
University, addressed the audience at the ground breaking
ceremony, noting that thanks to the partnerships that this
new university will have, men and women will come here from
across the world, men and women of all persuasions, all
beliefs, and all faiths committed together to openness. Women
at KAUST will share an equal role with men. They will be free
to move around, drive, wear western clothes, and enjoy
similar freedoms as men.

INTERNATIONAL EDUCATIONAL PARTNERSHIPS


10. (U) KAUST has three primary goals: forming a
knowledge-based community, supporting scientists and their
work at the national and international levels, and benefiting
the community, region and the world through scientific
research and economic development. KAUST will achieve these
goals through partnerships and collaboration agreements with
leading universities and research centers around the world.
These partnerships will allow for the exchang of scientific
expertise and knowledge, and create synergies and foster
cooperation toward the advancement of scientific progress
both in the Kingdom and throughout the world. KAUST has so
far established partnerships with Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institute (WHOI, Massac`usetts),Institut Francais du Petrole
(Paris),the National University of Singapore, the Indian
Institute of Technology, and the American University in Cairo.

COMMENTS AND OPINIONS FROM EVENT ATTENDEES


11. (C) Some of the attendees, including some members of the
University,s International Advisory Council, were skeptical
about the King's high expectations for KAUST. They commented
that the commitment of large amounts of funding to move
towards the goal of excellence in education, research, and
academia will help to accelerate progress within the
university, but funding alone will not be sufficient to
achieve academic success. Attendees referred to institutions
such as MIT when suggesting that there is a period of
maturity that the university must go through to reach such
excellence.


12. (C) These comments notwithstanding, the project is
unprecedented in scope and potential impact as a center of
scientific ind engineering excellence in the Middle East.
Based on collaborative relationships with eastern and western
wniversities, an impressive, evolving curriculum and faculty,
and endowed with great resources, KAUST has all the basic
ingredients for success. In keeping with the Secretary,s
Islamic World Science Partnerships initiative, post will
continue to follow KAUST's progress carefully.
GFOELLER