KAUST

Okay, we promised we'd give you more information about where we're going and what we'll be doing there, so here it is (David blogging).

Starting in September, David will be teaching at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudia Arabia (SA).

Where is KAUST?

The university is located just outside Thuwal, on the shores of the Red Sea (remember that BofM passage we posted?):


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We'll be about 50 miles north of Jeddah, one of SA's largest cities:

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Here's the big picture:

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What is KAUST?

KAUST is a private graduate university with a focus on science and engineering. It was made possible by a gift of $10 billion from King Abdullah, the current king of Saudi Arabia. You can read what he hopes KAUST will accomplish here.

KAUST is very much an international university.
It is managed by a board of trustees that includes people like the former president of Ireland, the former director of NIH, and the current president of Princeton University (see them all here). KAUST has already established research partnerships with dozens of other universities around the world, like Stanford, Berkeley, Cornell, Oxford, and Cambridge.

The university will open its doors in September, with about 80 faculty and 400 students. Eventually it will be home to about 225 faculty and 2000 students (plus hundreds of post-docs and research scientists).

What will life be like at KAUST?

I'm sure we don't really know yet. But you can see a glimpse here.

Someone asked what language we'll be speaking. The university community will, of course, be English speaking. We do hope to learn Arabic while we're there.

A few of you asked how long we'll be there. The truth is, we don't know. But we hope to stay long enough to see the fruits of our 'pioneering' efforts. And we'll be back to see our friends and family (in both North and South America) frequently.

What many of you are probably still wondering is why we chose KAUST. That will have to be another post.

EDIT: There is a rather detailed news article about KAUST here, and some videos about KAUST here.