KAUST announces inaugural Global Research Partnership center grants

“Global partnerships and collaborations are essential for any research university that aspires to be world class and to generate science and technologies that will truly improve the lives of people everywhere,” said Dr. Frank Press, former president of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and advisor to the selection committee.

“The GRP is KAUST’s initial contribution to global scientific issues of particular importance to Saudi Arabia and the world.”

The GRP grants will support four Centers:

• Cornell University’s KAUST Center for Research and Education, led by co-Principal Investigators Lynden A. Archer and Emmanuel P. Giannelis, will focus on applications and fundamental studies of novel organic-inorganic hybrid nanomaterials developed at Cornell. The Center will study these materials as new platforms for carbon dioxide capture and sequestration, desalination of water, production of gas and oil, and solar energy conversion. Cornell will also support KAUST's design and operation of the KAUST Nanoscale Facility (KNF), drawing upon its long history of success with its own NanoScale Science and Technology Facility (CNF), and provide advice on curriculum and faculty development at KAUST.

• University of Oxford’s Centre for Collaborative Applied Mathematics (OCCAM), led by Principal Investigator John Ockendon and six Co-Principal Investigators, will lead to the development of mathematical solutions to real-world problems, as diverse as modeling fluid-structure and acoustic-structure interactions and petroleum reservoir simulation (with applications in industry), modeling of plant and crop growth in stressed environments and vegetation-dune interactions (with applications in agriculture and land use policy). OCCAM will also enable a broad range of the basic and applied research lines at KAUST. OCCAM and its classes, lectures, and local and international network will be accessible through this collaboration. The Oxford Mathematical Institute’s renowned “Industrial Study Group” methodology —which provides a direct link between academe and the problems faced by commercial enterprises—will be transferred to KAUST between now and 2010.

• Stanford University’s Center for Advanced Molecular Photovoltaics, led by Michael McGehee and Peter Peumans as co-Principal Investigators, is structured as a global research program engaging five other universities, including KAUST in Saudi Arabia, to address the efficiency and reliability in the conversion of solar energy to electric energy via molecular photovoltaic collectors with elements made from refined petroleum (polymers). The program covers the full spectrum of basic and developmental research from the fundamental properties of the materials through the challenges of manufacturing and deployment of the new technology. The research carried out around the world will be integrated with the establishment of a research facility and field station at KAUST focused on the science and engineering of durability in solar cells. The Center director will take his sabbatical at KAUST, lending his teaching and research organizing skills. Also, through exchanges of students and postdoctoral researchers at each campus, Stanford will bring its expertise on solar materials to KAUST work at its most formative stage.