How much would it cost to solve some of the world’s biggest problems? King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia says about $10 billion — that’s the endowment he’s given to the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, or KAUST, a huge research facility devoted to solving some of the major problems facing the planet.
The brand new school — it opened just this past fall — rises from the desert north of Jeddah like the secret research lab in a James Bond movie. The desert blooms here, thanks to a private desalination plant and an army of gardeners. With a private Red Sea beach, knock-your-socks-off architecture and world-class labs, KAUST hopes to lure the world’s brainiest scientists to this Xanadu for nerds.
This isn’t a university in the traditional sense, says KAUST President Choon Fong Shih.