JEDDAH, 14 January 2008 — Dr. Shih Choon Fong, who was named on Saturday as the first president of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), was selected from among 110 candidates. In his 11 years at the National University of Singapore (NUS) — the last eight as president — Shih has played a critical role in building both the university’s and Singapore’s capacity and reputation as a global research leader. He was able to accomplish this through a strategy of international links and by reaching out to nurture relationships with other educational institutions.

He will bring his strong network of colleagues and associates from all over the world to KAUST, which is already pursuing partnerships, to recruiting faculty and students as well as to engaging researchers through its Global Research Partnership. He plans to deepen growing research and economic connections between Singapore and Saudi Arabia.

“We have no choice but to think global and be global,” Shih has said. “In Singapore, we are globally oriented because there is neither retreat nor hinterland.”

He also said, “In the global economy, small means you have to be focused and nimble, find a niche and work with partners.”

He has noted that KAUST is not going to “try to be world class in 100 different areas ... (but) we are sufficiently focused and funded to achieve global excellence in some areas.”

Shih is chairman emeritus of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU), a consortium of 37 leading research universities along the Pacific Rim. He serves on the executive committees of several university consortiums, including Universitas 21 and the International Alliance of Research Universities, an alliance of 10 leading universities on four continents.

Shih was on the faculty of Brown University in the US from 1981 to 1996, rising to full professor in 1986. In 1996, he accepted a joint appointment as professor at NUS and founding director of the national-level Institute of Materials Research and Engineering.

A globally recognized researcher in both academia and private industry, Shih has contributed more than 150 articles to leading academic journals. In 2004, Shih became the first Singaporean to be elected Foreign Associate to the US National Academy of Engineering.

In 2006, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Foreign Honorary Member, the only Foreign Honorary Member in the category of Engineering Sciences and Technologies to be elected that year.

Shih is or has been: Consultant to National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA), Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission; Member of the MIT Corporation Visiting Committee for the Department of Materials Science and Engineering; Chairman of the Singapore-MIT Alliance Governing Board; Board member of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR); the Biomedical Research Council; the Science and Engineering Research Council and the Institute of Policy Studies and a founding member of the Singapore International Foundation.

Shih has been awarded the French decoration “Chevalier” in the Order of the “Legion d’Honneur” for contributions to strengthening relations between NUS and French universities.

In addition, as NUS president, Shih has been crucial to Singapore’s efforts to build its capacity in science and technology, giving him a unique role as a university president whose responsibilities are part of national strategy. This is not unlike the role he will play at KAUST.

Shih talks frequently about “innovative intelligence” — the ability to translate ideas and knowledge to improve products and services as well as to create new ones — and “entrepreneurial intelligence” — the capacity to create new enterprise from opportunities.

Having helped position NUS and Singapore itself on a trajectory to enhance scientific and technology capacity, Shih brings with him a model that KAUST can adopt and emulate to transform Saudi Arabia from a single-commodity economy to a more diverse, knowledge-based economy. KAUST will deliberately and assertively seek out joint research ventures with private industry, transferring discoveries of basic science to applications that have viable commercial potential within and beyond the Kingdom. By reaching out to research institutions and researchers from around the world, KAUST will broaden and nurture the pool of talent to help solve scientific and technological puzzles, benefiting Saudis economically, socially and otherwise.

If, for example, a collaboration with a research university in Asia leads us to an innovation that makes solar energy more viable and less expensive, with a research center in the UK to perfect the process of water desalination, or with a marine research institute in Massachusetts to develop strategies for preserving the Red Sea’s ecosystems, the Saudi people will benefit.

Shih’s task ahead is to guide the creation and set the directions for an institution whose mission is to solve important challenges of science and technology and benefit Saudi Arabia, the region and the world. He will guide the development and administration of four research institutes that will foster knowledge creation and discovery through an interdisciplinary approach, which is now the standard approach in facilitating research and innovation.