RIYADH, 15 August 2007 -- The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) announced yesterday that Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in the United States would be its first partner in its global collaborative research program. A delegation from WHOI arrived in Saudi Arabia recently to view the KAUST site and conclude the initial memorandum of understanding that was signed in April 2007.
"We treasure our relationship with Woods Hole not only because it is our first formal collaboration with a world-class research institution, but also because it will yield new discoveries from the Red Sea and enrich the minds of future scientists from around the world. KAUST will contribute to global scientific and technological advancement by bringing the world to the Kingdom and vice versa," said Nadhmi Al-Nasr, interim president of KAUST.
"We are excited to embark on this new collaborative research program with KAUST," said Dr. Laurence Madin, WHOI director of research. "The research programs will increase our fundamental understanding of the ocean and its ecosystems in this important part of the world, and should prove valuable to Saudi environmental resource managers."
According to a press statement issued on the occasion, the university expects to conclude as many as four collaborations with leading institutions in other fields. A substantial grant program for individual investigators and centers around the world and a student scholarship program will be launched this summer.
The KAUST is being built as an international, graduate-level research university dedicated to inspiring a new age of scientific achievement in the Kingdom that will also benefit the region and the world. KAUST is the realization of a decades-long vision of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah.
KAUST's core campus, located on more than 36 million square meters on the Red Sea near Rabigh about 80 kilometers north of Jeddah is set to open in September 2009.
The Memorandum of Understanding signed by WHOI and KAUST creates three initial areas of research at KAUST: coral reefs, coastal hydrography, and fisheries and aquaculture. WHOI also will provide consultation on the design of laboratory support, and dock facilities for the KAUST Marine and Ocean Research Center, which will provide opportunities for advanced research on Red Sea oceanography and marine life.
The proposed coral reef systems research project will focus on corals and reef fishes and provide critical information for the protection and sustainable use of coral reef ecosystems along the Saudi coast in the northern and central Red Sea. The project will assess a range of threats to coral reef health and identify regional environmental stress factors that make the reefs susceptible to disease, bleaching and death.
The goal of the proposed WHOI-KAUST three-year fisheries and aquaculture project will be to develop an integrated bio-economic model of the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia that describes the dynamic relationships among fish stocks and the fisheries that harvest them. By tracing out the biological and economic effects of alternative fishery policies, such a model provides support for resource managers.
The proposed coastal hydrographic and circulation project will establish a suite of observational and modeling activities that will provide the first comprehensive description of the physical oceanography in the Red Sea. This research also will support studies of coral reef ecology and provide a baseline for long-term monitoring of the coastal environment.
The KAUST is seeking to establish similar collaborations with other world-class scientific research institutions.
By Mohammed Rasooldeen
© Arab News 2007
