Dhahran, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (August 30, 2007) — Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) and the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT Bombay), signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on July 2, 2007, to work together to foster world-class programs that will advance scientific research, graduate education and technological development in fundamental and applied chemical sciences for the benefit of their respective countries and all mankind.
Nadhmi A. Al-Nasr, Interim President of KAUST, and Professor Ashok Misra, Director of IIT Bombay, signed the non-binding pledge to establish a solid base of research that will be internationally competitive across a broad range of disciplines and in many multi-disciplinary areas.
"We are gratified by this new relationship with IIT Bombay as a further extension of our collaborative arrangements with other world-class research institutions," said Al-Nasr, referring to recent agreements to form research partnerships with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in the U.S., Institut Français du Pétrole in France and the National University of Singapore. “We believe the results of these shared activities will benefit both parties — and indeed, all of mankind — by bringing us together to work on scientific and technological projects that are of interest to us all.”
"Likewise, we are counting on this type of collaborative exchange of ideas, faculty and students, and formal research activities with KAUST," said IIT Bombay’s Director, Professor Ashok Misra “to produce breakthroughs in technology that have the possibility to create tomorrow’s whole new industries in a way that no single institution is likely to achieve on its own.”
KAUST and IIT Bombay agreed to establish research projects or programs planned and executed by either organization individually or by both collectively. The principal areas of research and collaboration to be developed and supported include chemical and energy sciences and engineering, materials sciences and engineering, research in biosciences and the environment, and applied mathematics and computational sciences.
Both parties pledged their best efforts to collaborate on the design, construction and initial operation of research centers and laboratory facilities; to cooperate on research projects conducted by either ITT Bombay, KAUST, or both; to hold scientific and/or technical meetings on topics of mutual interest; to exchange personnel (scientific, technical and administrative staff) for varying periods of time; to make use of each respective organization’s facilities and instruments to be defined precisely by contracts; to exchange information on research and engineering in energy sciences; and to undertake other cooperative activities as mutually agreed.
Both parties also agreed to consult with each other on graduate and other educational programs and curricula in engineering, science, the environment, and computational sciences at KAUST. Both parties will also collaborate on exchange of students, postdoctoral fellows and junior faculty for varying periods of time.
About KAUST
KAUST is being built in Saudi Arabia as an international, graduate-level research university dedicated to inspiring a new age of scientific achievement in the Kingdom, the region and around the globe. The core campus, located on more than 36 million square meters on the Red Sea near Rabigh, is set to open in September 2009. For more information about KAUST, visit www.kaust.edu.sa.
About ITT Bombay
IIT Bombay was established at Powai, a northern suburb of Mumbai, by an Act of Parliament in 1958. Today the Institute is recognized as one of the leading centers of academic excellence in the country with dynamic progress in all academic and research activities on par with the best institutions in the world. IIT Bombay in collaboration with both national and international clients (public and private) has developed important products and processes (especially in nanotechnology, medical biosensor and monitoring devices, computer language and lexical technology) and transferred them successfully to sponsoring organizations. The University is also known for its work in pure physics, especially string theory and the ambitious attempt to unify all the forces of nature, with enormous implications for the fundamental physics that underlie all scientific and technological work. For more information about IIT Bombay, visit http://www.iitb.ac.in.