THUWAL: King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) focuses on attracting world-class scientific and research talent regardless of gender, said Ali Al-Naimi, chairman of the new university’s board of trustees and the minister of petroleum and mineral resources.
“At King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, we have no quota for men or for women. We are out to attract the best minds in the world,” said Al-Naimi.
“At KAUST, we don’t focus on gender,” he said emphatically in response to a question about the challenges of recruiting women scientists and researchers at KAUST. “This is the House of Wisdom. Here the focus is going to be education and research, nothing else.”
Al-Naimi predicted the new university would benefit Saudi society in many ways.
“First of all, this university is located in Saudi Arabia, so definitely it will create great opportunities for Saudis who have the right qualifications.”
Graduates and researchers from the university “will go on to create a knowledge economy, which is what we are looking for,” Al-Naimi said. Also, the high standard of education here will lead to improvements in the overall standard of education in the Kingdom.”
The minister’s comments were seconded by two women faculty members who attended the press conference before the university’s formal inauguration: Jasmeen Merzaban, assistant professor of biochemistry, and Niveen Khashab, assistant professor of chemical science.
“The moment I heard about KAUST, I said yes — this is where I want to go,” said Khashab, who began her training as a chemist at the American University of Beirut. “The kind of research facilities and the kind of funding this university offers is unparalleled,” she noted.
“I am proud of being associated with KAUST. It is a vision and it is a passion, and in the world of research, it is all about passion and nothing else.”
Merzaban, who holds a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and a doctorate in experimental medicine from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, said KAUST was ideally suited to her kind of research.
“The state-of-the-art infrastructure this university provides for research in the fields of glycobiology and immunology is amazing,” she said. “When the opportunity to come to KAUST came my way, there was no way I was going to say no.”
Professor Choon Fong Shih, KAUST’s president, noted that women formed a small fraction of the world research community. “This means we have to compete with the best universities in the world to get them to KAUST. This is a challenge. However, we have succeeded in getting the best faculty at our university.”
He added: “The university gets better and better. This has been called the House of Wisdom, and there should be no talk in terms of gender. We want the best minds to compete from the best universities in the world. That is the only way of coming up with cutting-edge technology to solve many of our problems and issues.”
Paraphrasing the well-known Chinese proverb, Shih said: “We have just embarked on a 1,000-mile journey, and we have taken the first steps.”
So far, KAUST has registered 817 students representing 61 countries; 314 began classes this month, while the rest will enroll at the beginning of 2010. Of the total, 15 percent are Saudi, say university officials. The university’s aim is to expand to 2,000 students within eight to 10 years.
