Choon Fong Shih named the founding president of KAUST of Suadi Arabia

Update:  See a press release and photos.  Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, (January 14, 2008) – After an extensive international search among top academic research leaders, His Excellency Minister Ali Ibrahim Al-Naimi, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources of Saudi Arabia and Chairman of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) Board of Trustees, today announced that Professor Choon Fong Shih will be the Founding President of KAUST, the new world-class, graduate-level scientific research university now under development in Saudi Arabia. He is expected to assume his duties on 1 December 2008.

Currently the President of National University of Singapore (NUS), Professor Shih, 62, has broad expertise and experience in academia and private industry as an eminent scientific researcher and educator. He is known internationally as a dynamic and visionary leader of a major research university.

Minister Naimi noted that Professor Shih has played a critical role in enhancing scientific and technological capacity at NUS, making it one of the top research universities in Asia and the world.

Minister Naimi also said, “Professor Shih is a man of purpose, conviction and cultural sensitivity. He has shown himself to be a ‘builder of bridges’ across peoples, disciplines, institutions and cultures. With his experience in building NUS as a global research university with an entrepreneurial dimension, Professor Shih has the vital attributes to facilitate the synergy between science and technology transfer. Working with the private sector, KAUST can be an engine of innovation and economic growth, providing greater opportunities for diversify the Saudi economy. We are confident that under his leadership KAUST will become a global center of scientific research that brings benefits to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and beyond.”

Minister Naimi added, “The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah has shared his vision for KAUST to be a new House of Wisdom, which will deliver ‘its humane and noble message in an ideal environment, with the help of God and the minds and the ideas of enlightened people, who will participate in this educational mission without discrimination’. Professor Shih is the right person to fulfill this noble vision.”

Professor Shih said that he was honored to meet the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz yesterday, and that he was grateful for the trust shown in selecting him to be part of the King’s bold and noble vision for the Kingdom and the world at large.

Professor Frank Rhodes, President Emeritus of Cornell University said: "The appointment of Professor Shih as the Founding President of KAUST represents a major step in the realization of the Custodian of the two Holy Mosques” vision for creating a great new university of science and technology. A celebrated scientist, whose achievements have been widely recognized and honored, Professor Shih brings a wealth of international leadership experience in both the industrial and academic worlds. As a senior professor at Brown University, as a research group leader at General Electric, and as an extraordinarily entrepreneurial and successful president of National University of Singapore, Professor Shih has demonstrated an outstanding commitment and dedication to building successful alliances to promote the advancement of knowledge and to extend its benefits. He is superbly suited to lead this new institution and his appointment will be widely celebrated. The trustees and the university are to be congratulated on making an outstanding appointment."

Dr. Karen A. Holbrook, former President of The Ohio State University, added “Professor Shih is a person of high energy, optimism and integrity, a perfect combination of personal assets for anyone with the task of building a project of such scope and complexity as KAUST,” “Knowing him personally, I can see readily how Professor Shih has accomplished so much in his career and most recently at National University of Singapore. His enthusiasm for the task at hand, his ability to instill confidence in others and his collegial approach of working collaboratively with everyone around him – all this suggests to me that KAUST could not have picked a better person as its Founding President.”

HE Dr. Khalid Al-Sultan, rector of King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals said, “I have come to know Professor Shih through his work as a member of KFUPM’s International Advisory Council. We have also worked together as members of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology’s International Advisory Council. I believe that his participation on both councils reflects his distinguished academic career and his accomplishments as a scientist. In addition, I would like to point out his role in transforming the National University of Singapore. Under his leadership, it has rapidly become one the premier institutions in Asia and indeed in the world. In my opinion, KAUST could not have selected a better person to be the University’s founding president.”

During his tenure as President, NUS has been transformed from a respected teaching institution to a research-intensive university. It now stands in the top 50 universities worldwide, and has set a goal to build 10 great programs or departments in 10 years. NUS has successfully attracted top talents from world class research universities. It has built strategic alliances with leading research universities around the world, and is a member of the International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU), the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU), and APRU World Institute (AWI). On 13 June 2007, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between KAUST and NUS to collaborate on programs to advance scientific research, graduate education and technological development in fundamental and applied chemical sciences.

Professor Shih said, “I am deeply grateful His Excellency Minister Ali Al Naimi for this great honor and responsibility as the Founding President of KAUST. With His Excellency’s support, I look forward to helping build KAUST into a global knowledge enterprise, whose discoveries in science and technology will bring benefits in your lives, your children’s and their children’s also.”

To the wider scientific community around the world, Professor Shih said, “I am excited about building a university of global standing, adopting best practices and appointing global talents, encompassing all faiths and cultures. KAUST represents a paradigm shift – an intellectual and organizational innovation – to conduct high impact research unconstrained by disciplinary boundaries, to create a new ecosystem for research unfettered by organizational strictures, and to build meaningful partnerships across communities, cultures and continents. All for the larger purpose of serving humanity by finding scientific and technological solutions to the problems facing the Kingdom, the region, and the world.”

Biographical Summary

Choon Fong SHIH, who was born in Singapore, became President and Vice-Chancellor of National University of Singapore (NUS) in 2000, after serving as its Deputy Vice-Chancellor and as Founding Director of Singapore’s Institute of Materials Research and Engineering. Before returning to his birthplace after 30 years in North America, he was a professor at Brown University in the USA. Prior to Brown, he led the Fracture Research Group at the General Electric Company’s Corporate Research Lab.

In 2004, Shih became the first Singaporean to be elected as a Foreign Associate of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering. He is also a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has been awarded the French decoration “Chevalier” in the Order of the “Legion d'Honneur.”  In 2007, he was the inaugural recipient from the Asia Pacific for the Chief Executive Leadership Award by the Council for Advancement and Support for Education (CASE), a global organization with a membership of over 3000 educational institutions.

He has made significant contributions in nonlinear fracture mechanics and computational methods for fracture analyses, and has more than 150 publications in leading academic journals to his credit.  He is among the highly cited researchers in the world for the category of engineering compiled by the Institute for Scientific Information.

As President of NUS, Professor Shih has actively promoted the University’s and Singapore’s profile as a global player in scientific and technological research and in education. He is Chairman Emeritus of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU), a consortium of 37 leading research universities along the Pacific Rim, which is modeled after the premier Association of American Universities (AAU). He chairs the Governing Board of the APRU World Institute, an institute of advanced studies seeking to address scientific, social and economic issues of global importance. He also serves on the governing boards of several university consortiums, including Universitas 21 and the International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU). Shih was a key driver in the formation of IARU, an alliance of 10 of the world’s leading research universities spanning four continents.

Shih has also served on a number of national-level committees in Singapore. He is the Chairman of the Singapore-MIT Alliance Governing Board, as well as an Executive Committee member of the Economic Development Board.  He is a founding member of the Singapore International Foundation, a Board member of the National Research Foundation chaired by the former Deputy Prime Minister, Dr Tony Tan. In 2002-2003, Shih served on the Economic Review Committee, chaired by then Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong that crafted wide-ranging strategies for improving Singapore’s international competitiveness.

Professor Shih has been a consultant to NASA, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, among others. He is a member of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Corporation Visiting Committee for the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. 

About KAUST

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (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. As an independent, merit-based institution, KAUST will employ many of the best practices from leading research universities and enable top researchers from around the globe and across all cultures to work together to solve challenging scientific and technological issues. The KAUST global research and education network will support diverse talents, both on its campus and at other premier universities and research institutions, through collaborative research agreements, grants, and student scholarship programs. The core campus, located on more than 36 square kilometers on the Red Sea near Thuwal, is set to open in September 2009. For more information about KAUST, visit http://www.kaust.edu.sa

President’s Acceptance Message

A TRUST TO KEEP, A DREAM TO FULFILL

Today, I am humbled and privileged to be accepting the Founding Presidency of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, KAUST. I am deeply grateful to University Board Chair His Excellency Ali I. Al-Naimi and to the presidential search committee for this great honor and responsibility.

I am foremost an engineer and researcher.  Early on as a child, my greatest pleasure was to explore the longkangs (ditches) of Singapore, looking for fishes and frogs.  Curiosity, and the joy when that is fulfilled, has led me to a life-long quest of pursuing scientific knowledge, the interplay of inquiry and reasoning. My entire adult life has been dedicated to the pursuit of science and its application to solving problems for humanity, and to facilitating the conditions in which science can flourish – the nurturing of open minds, of passion and curiosity for the world, of acceptance for diversity, and the need for human beings to work together.

When a scientist-engineer such as myself becomes the president of a university – an institution dedicated to the discovery and pursuit of knowledge, committed to deep scholarship and to attracting the best minds, and steadfast in addressing the pressing challenges facing humanity – it is to keep a trust, to become a steward of what is most precious of human civilization.

In my life, I am honored, not once, but twice, to help build a world class university.  The first time was in the mid-1990’s, when I was called out of my quiet researcher’s life at Brown University and North America, where I had spent 30 years, to return to my native Singapore to become the founding director of a national research institute and eventually, as the president of the National University of Singapore (NUS), to help transform the latter from a great teaching institution to a world-class research university with linkages to other research universities around the globe.

Over the past 11 years, I have been privileged to work with some extraordinary people in Singapore and around the world, to help fulfill the vision of the leaders and people of Singapore for a world class research university. Now for the second time, I am called to help build a world class research university for the 21st century. While this enterprise is far from my home, it is close to my heart. 

I am honored and privileged to be part of the building of what the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah has called a new House of Wisdom – Bayt al-Hikma – “a forum for science and research, and a beacon of knowledge for future generations”. At the heart of KAUST is the enlightened Islamic spirit, a spirit that loves knowledge not only for its own sake but also for its promise for the betterment of the human condition.

As the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah has also said, this new House of Wisdom will “be a source of knowledge and serve as a bridge between people and cultures … delivering its humane and noble message … with the help of God and the minds and the ideas of enlightened people, who will participate in this educational mission without discrimination”.

To the people of Saudi Arabia, my wife and I are excited about making our home with you, and discovering and appreciating your rich traditions and culture. With His Excellency’s support, I look forward to helping build KAUST into a global knowledge enterprise, whose discoveries in science and technology will bring benefits in your lives and your children’s and their children’s also.

To my colleagues in science and higher education around the world, I look forward to building a university of global standing, adopting best practices and appointing leading scholars from around the world. This community will be international, encompassing people from all faiths, from all over the world. This openness to talented individuals of outstanding ability will be the hallmark of this new university and the best guarantee it offers for achieving its remarkable goals.

This, however, is not just another well-endowed research university. KAUST represents a paradigm shift – an intellectual, organizational innovation – to conduct high impact research unconstrained by disciplinary boundaries, to create a new ecosystem for research unfettered by organizational strictures, and to build meaningful partnerships across communities, cultures and continents. All for the larger purpose of serving humanity by finding scientific and technological solutions to the problems facing the Kingdom, the region, and the world.

To Singapore and NUS, it has been a privilege for me to work with all the talented and dedicated people in our community, and for the opportunity to build with you a world class research university. It has been an exhilarating journey we have taken together and a steep learning curve for us all.

At NUS’ first centennial in 2005, I said the vital traits for our community were imagination, openness and courage.  Imagination is the raw energy for discovery and innovation.  Openness enables the distinctive strengths of individuals to synergize and multiply manifold.  Courage helps us question conventional wisdom and take risks.  I wish you well and urge you to continue your journey with imagination, openness and courage.

To my colleagues and friends around the world, we have a trust to keep, and a dream to fulfill.