October 2010

BE

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology

‫ اململكة العربية السعودية‬، ‫ثول‬

at Thuwal, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

October 2010 / Shawwal 1431 Issue No. 2

the

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recommended in

JEDDAH Hot tips, cool places and more!

Turn to p.4-5

www.kaust.edu.sa

3D-reconstruction of the membrane porosity

Dr. Mustafa Al-Ali

Ten New Partnerships Global Collaborative Research (GCR) has recently signed agreements with universities in countries such as Australia, Ireland and Switzerland for the first time. Smaller in scale than those secured during the early days of the university, these collaborations have been arranged at the faculty level. The new partners include Trinity College Dublin, Harvard, the University of Kentucky, Clemson University in South Carolina, Australia’s U n i v e r s i t y o f Wo l l o n g o n g , École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne of Switzerland, and Széchenyi István University in Hungary.

“All early partnerships were established at the institutional level,” GCR director Dr. Mustafa Al-Ali told The Beacon.

The existing, larger-scale partnerships including the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Stanford, Cornell, Oxford, National Taiwan University and HKUST were secured before work on building the campus began. With the university in Thuwal now in its second year, a "bottom-up approach" is being encouraged by senior leadership, Dr Al-Ali explained, "...the faculty should drive future partnerships based on needs and KAUST’s strategic research directions.

“So we have introduced a competitive program. We asked our faculty to submit proposals for activities, with their own choice of partners, that are connected and complementary so that each project includes research both inside and outside the Kingdom”.

The program attracted a strong response from faculty; ten partnerships were awarded from the 50 proposals submitted. “The proposals went through the peer review process and the selection panel (Continued on p.2)

INSIDE:

Better

MEMBRANES

– adversity drives innovation

In an inspiring example of overcoming the early challenges of getting their lab up and running, scientists in the Advanced Membranes and Porous Materials ‎C enter, working with researchers in the Nanofabrication, Imaging ‎a nd Characterization Lab, have made an important discovery. As ‎reported in a recent issue of Macromolecules, they have ‎d eveloped an improved and lower-cost method for producing ‎n anoporous films which have extremely high pore density and ‎r egularity. Their work advances the capability for large-scale ‎production of high quality membranes for water purification, ‎m edical and pharmaceutical applications as well as ‎improvements to templates for the electronics industry.‎ Whilst awaiting the completion of their own research lab and not ‎wishing to remain idle, Drs. Suzana Nunes and Klaus-Viktor ‎Peinemann chose this project knowing they had the full support o ‎ f the Core Labs.

Ironically, ‎if their “own research lab had been available when they started ‎working at KAUST,” they told The Beacon, they “probably would ‎not have approached this particular problem.” Having worked ‎with membranes and polymer solutions for a long time, they ‎identified a problem which was fascinating from a scientific point ‎of

News 2-3

view, relevant for membrane technology and, perhaps most ‎importantly, could be tackled with the resources then available to ‎them at KAUST. This is a tangible example of finding the silver ‎lining in the cloud of our startup challenges.‎ In practical use for more than fifty years, membranes have ‎evolved over time, driven by end-user needs for improved ‎p erformance. Separation techniques have continuously improved, making the membranes more selective and able to remove finer ‎p articles. New breakthroughs have enabled lower energy ‎c onsumption, reduced costs, increased membrane life span and, ‎above all, significant benefits to end-users.‎ As an example, patients with renal failure can spend up to eight ‎hours daily undergoing hemodialysis in order to remove waste ‎products from their blood. This involves diffusion of solutes across a semi-permeable membrane. Due to their enhanced and more precise ‎filtration capability, high flux membranes (i.e. ‎those with a high rate of throughput) with ‎improved control of the pore size and distribution have the ‎potential to substantially shorten the time a patient needs to be on a ‎dialysis machine.‎ Microbial and chemical contamination of water resources ‎significantly

Out and About 4-5

impacts human health around the world and new ‎threats, such as pharmaceuticals in drinking water, are constantly emerging. Commercial membranes for water ‎purification, for the most part, still resemble those developed in ‎the 1960s. The required increase in the effectiveness of ‎decontamination requires much higher fluxes and a ‎membrane with uniform pore size distribution in the nano range, ‎i.e. ultrafiltration.‎ While high flux is relatively easy to build into a membrane, the ‎challenge is to ensure that the pores are evenly sized and ‎d istributed. The KAUST researchers addressed this problem by taking a unique approach to the development of ‎nanoporous films inspired by block copolymers, metal-directed ‎supramolecular chemistry and nonsolvent induced phase separation.‎ Block copolymers are composed of at least two long sequences ‎of monomer units which are quite different from each other but ‎are covalently bound. By diluting with a selective solvent, one of ‎the polymers tends to avoid solvent contact, assembling into complex morphologies or forms. This offers numerous ‎possibilities for tailoring nano-structures.‎

In Depth 6-7

Technology 7

Suzana and Klaus used metal-polymer complexation as a ‎m ethod for directing self-assembly, stabilizing micelles (which ‎are a submicroscopic aggregation of molecules) in solution ‎a nd providing intermicellar crosslinking. Using a series of ‎advanced microscopy methods and the expertise of core lab ‎s cientists, they experimented with a number of different solvents. This helped to ‎d etermine the self-assembly in solution and its influence on the ‎mechanism of pore formation, ultimately to find the one which ‎formed the most orderly and even distribution of micelles.‎ However, micelles and vesicles that are formed in solution are ‎dynamic, and evaporation immediately transforms the ‎morphology. The challenge for the researchers was to control and stabilize the morphologies quickly to enable bottom-up ‎nanostructure fabrication. Film morphology is dependent upon ‎n ot only the thermodynamic interaction between copolymers, but ‎also upon other factors such as viscosity and the presence of ‎impurities which could dramatically influence the kinetics of ‎phase separation and self-assembly.‎ (Continued on p.2)

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NEWS

October 2010

The Beacon

This second issue of The Beacon reminds us that the extraordinary blend of human talent and first-rate equipment that is KAUST is already reaping results.

Whether it’s the serendipity of a lab not being quite ready resulting in a discovery which may improve the lives of millions or research on the unusual volcanic activity which led to over 30,000 small earthquakes last year just north of us, KAUST’s scientific community

is starting to make its mark. Sharing these exciting stories with you depends on our being provided with your news, so please keep us informed. On another note, back in the day, we solicited the community for names for the paper and out of 200 submissions some 10% were a version of its current name.

Watch this space for your ‘reward’! Thank you for reading.

- THE BEACON Editorial

Write to us at thebeacon@kaust.edu.sa The Beacon, Issue 2, October 2010. Published by The Communications Department, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia.

Contact Salah Sindi T +966 (2) 808-3221, email salah.sindi@kaust.edu.sa, or Christopher Sands at T +966 (2) 808-3228, email christopher.sands@kaust.edu.sa © King Abdullah University, of Science and Technology.

Better

RIGHT FIG.1: Conventional polyacrilonitrile (PAN) membrane RIGHT FIG.2: Isoporous membrane surface prepared by the self-assembly of block-copolymer micelles

MEMBRANES

Fig.1

Fig.2 TERRY KING, PHOTOGRAPHY SDG

MAIN IMAGE: Klaus-Viktor Peinemann and Suzana Nunes

Klaus-Viktor, a veteran of the membrane technology industry, ‎r ealized that “phase inversion” (abrupt phase separation by ‎immersion in a nonsolvent bath), a well-defined process in the manufacture of commercial

membranes, might be ‎the key to the commercial viability of their findings.

Using a very ‎simple and easily scalable casting procedure followed by an immediate water bath quenching (for “phase inversion”), the ‎pore size and

distribution in the membrane can be stabilized and s‎ et.‎ With a patent application in process and a small-scale machine ‎t o manufacture small quantities of the film currently under ‎construction, the KAUST researchers hope to form a new company to manufacture specialized membranes. ‎Meanwhile, back in the lab, they will continue to refine the ‎science and techniques of ultraporous films, moving toward the possibility of creating membranes with “responsive pores.”‎

With this discovery, Suzana and Klaus-Viktor provide an ‎example of how challenging laboratory conditions can lead to the production of great research results. Although their own lab wasn’t ‎ready, KAUST Research Scientist, Pradeep Neelakanda told The ‎Beacon “The abundance of high quality equipment at KAUST ‎allowed us to immediately evaluate whether the membrane was ‎good or not.” In this case, the results have the potential to bring ‎a brighter future to millions of people worldwide.‎‎

"This FIC award will provide the resources to enable Dr. Dixon at the University of Wollongong, Dr. Chaieb and me to advance the single-molecule imaging field towards studying complex biological questions"

Ten New Partnerships (Continued from p.1) evaluated them and came up with the top-ranked ones,’ added Dr. Al-Ali. “As we expand our geographic distribution we are bringing research to KAUST that is of importance and will enrich KAUST’s research agenda. What matters is that it comes from a strong group with a good repu-

- Dr. Samir Hamdan, Assistant Professor of Biology “Without this funding it would not have been possible to do a comprehensive genetic study of the Saudi population, nor accept the official invitation to contribute Saudi data to the world-wide 1000 human genome project”.

Aerial view of a volcano Al-Ais, NW Saudi Arabia

A paper written in part by ‎KAUST Associate Professor of Geophysics, Dr. Sigurjon ‎J onsson, has just been published online by Nature ‎G eoscience. The paper describes the vulnerability to ‎volcanoes of ‎northwest Saudi Arabia, just 300KM north of KAUST. A swarm of 30,000 quakes shook Harrat ‎L unayir (harrat means lava field in Arabic) May and ‎J une 2009, which were caused by the pressure of a ‎magma intrusion within 2km of the ‎surface of the earth.

Saudi officials evacuated over ‎‎30,000 people at the time; they were allowed to return ‎to their homes about two months later, after the ‎researchers had shown that an actual volcanic eruption ‎o r larger earthquakes were no longer likely. ‎Jonsson told The Beacon, “We discovered a new kind of ‎p eculiar mixed-frequency earthquake and the results ‎have also influenced the way we think about ‎plate boundaries. This was a rare and excellent ‎example of how magma ascends towards the surface ‎a nd, luckily in this case, didn’t quite make it.” The ‎Beacon will cover Dr. Jonsson’s work more extensively ‎i n a future edition.‎

- Dr. Tim Ravasi, Associate Professor of Biology

tation.” 

Faculty Initiated Collaborations - The Winners Advanced Computational Platform for Electron Transport in Electronic Devices and Biological ‎Sensors ‎ Udo Schwingenschlogl (PI), Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering‎ Collaborating Organization (C.o.): Trinity College Dublin (Ireland) ‎ Diamond nanocrystals: a novel sensing platform for nanomedicine and building blocks for self-‎assembled functional nanocomposites ‎ Osman Bakr (PI), Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering‎ C.O.: EPFL (Lausanne, Switzerland) & Harvard

Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biological Sciences ‎ C.O.: The Scripps Research Institute & Technische Universitat Munchen The Genetic Basis of Obesity/Diabetes in the Saudi Population Tim Ravasi (PI), Associate Professor of Chemical and Life Sciences‎; Chris Voolstra (co-PI), Assistant Professor, Red Sea Research Center; Annika Haywood (co-PI), Research Scientist ‎International Medical Center (Saudi Arabia)‎ C.O.: University of California, San Diego

Energy Harvesting & Waste Heat Recovery Using Oxide Thermoelectrics ‎ Husam Alshareef (PI), Assoc. Professor of Materials Science and Engineering‎; Udo Schwingenschlogl (co-PI), Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering C.O.: Clemson University ‎

Genomic, Transcriptomic, and Proteomic View of a Photosynthetic Algae, chromerid, an ‎Evolutionary “Missing Link” to the Human Malaria Parasites Arnab Pain (PI), Associate Professor of Chemical and Life Sciences‎; Aswini Panigrahi (co-PI), Senior Research Scientist, Biosciences Core Lab ‎ C.O.: Biology Centre, Academy of Sciences (Czech Republic)‎

Expanding the Genetic Code for Design and Engineering of Biocatalysts:‎ Jorg Eppinger (PI), Assistant Professor of Chemical Science‎; Samir Hamdan (co-PI),

KAUST-USF Metal-Organic Materials Network: Smart Materials for Energy and Environmental ‎Sustainability Mohamed Eddaoudi (PI), Professor of Chemical

Science‎ C.O.: University of South Florida Molecular-Scale Design and Engineering of Nanostructured Organic Solar Cells Aram Amassian (PI), Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering‎; Ghassan Jabbour (co-PI), Professor of Materials Science and Engineering Markus Hadwiger (co-PI), Assistant Professor of Mathematical and Computer Sciences ‎ C.O.: Georgia Tech University, KFUPM (Saudi Arabia) & University of Kentucky Positive Numerical Solution of Differential Equations David Ketcheson (PI), Assistant Professor of Applied Mathematics C.O.: Szechenyi Istvan University (Hungary), University of Massachussetts-‎Dartmouth & CWI (Netherlands)‎ Single Molecule View of DNA Replication Samir Hamdan (PI), Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biological Sciences; Sahroui Chaieb (co-PI), Assoc. Professor Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science C.O.: University of Wolongong (Australia)‎

In Brief

ABDULGAFOOR ABDULHALEEM, PHOTOGRAPHY SDG

(Continued from p.1)

Co-authors (left to right): Ali Reza Behzad, Bobby Hooghan, Rachid Sougrat and Dalaver Anjum.

Absent from photo: Lan Zhao, Neekalanda Pradeep, Ingo Pinnau and Ulla Vainio.

SAUDI CIVIL DEFENSE

Making our mark

Late Breaking News

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Toys for Thuwal

On 8 September, 1,300 gifts were delivered from almost the same number of KAUST families to Mr. Ayesh Aljahdali, Thuwal Social Committee leader.

The Eid presents were then distributed to 900 girls and boys in Thuwal elementary schools, 70 in kindergartens and the remainder to children and babies still at home. As part of the KAUST “Neighbours” campaign, the gesture showed the strengthening bonds between the campus and our local community.

The Beacon

October 2010

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In 1932, 399 African Americans with syphilis were recruited for this forty year clinical study to investigate the natural progression of the untreated disease. Although intended to help justify treatment programs for blacks, the researchers deliberately withheld treatment even after penicillin was found to be an effective cure. Public outcry led to termination of the project and major changes in US law that ensured full disclosure of the methodology, diagnosis and test results.

ILLUSTRATION: CHRIS KENDALL

Tuskegee Syphilis Study

Andrew Friedman

2WRCI Official Organiser

William Summerlin

Peter Brooks and Deborah Runkle of AAAS, cochair a session at WCRI

Integrity

in RESEARCH

KAUST confirmed its commitment to the issue of research integrity when it was named as an official supporter of the 2nd World Conference on Research Integrity (WCRI) held in July in Singapore. The Conference was hosted

by Nanyang Technological University, National University of Singapore, Singapore Management University and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR). Other official supporters included the US Office of Research Integrity, the European Science Foundation, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Research Councils UK, National Science Foundation (NSF), China Association for Science and Technology and the International Council for Science.

The first World Conference was held in Lisbon in 2007. With the success of its second conference, the World Conference on Research Integrity has established itself as a leading global forum for debating issues on research integrity.

The “father of the computer,” mathematician and engineer Charles Babbage described four “frauds of observers” in his 1830 book entitled “Reflections on the Decline of Science in England and on Some of its Causes.” These were: “Hoaxing” or pretending to have made a discovery; “Forging” observations that were never made; “Trimming” inconvenient information from observations that differ from the mean; and “Cooking” or

being selective in observations to arrive at a consistent set.

Babbage’s concerns about fraudulent research practices resonate today.

Following the 2007 OECD Consensus Report on Best Practices for Ensuring Scientific Integrity and Preventing Misconduct, we now categorize such unethical activities as: • Fabrication: making up results and recording or reporting them; • Falsification: manipulating research, materials, equipment, or processes, or changing or omitting data or results such that the research is not accurately represented in the research record; and • Plagiarism: the appropriation of another person’s ideas, processes, results, or words without giving appropriate credit Research misconduct is a worldwide problem. Its consequences can be dangerous and expensive. Greater efforts than ever are being made to expose and prevent it. With more international collaborative research, jurisdictional issues and differences in the attitude of researchers from different countries add to the complexity. To support their researchers, institutions should establish clear standards of expected behavior.

Integrity in research is essential to reaping public trust in science. The diverse nature of the challenge is clear from the 2nd World Conference progamme. Sessions included integrity issues in dual-use research and in the digital

age, standards for journal editors, challenges for institutional leaderships, harmonizing research integrity structures in response to the globalisation of research and conducting investigations into misconduct in international research collaborations.

KAUST was represented at the 2nd World Conference by Peter Brooks, Assistant to the Senior Vice President f o r E c o n o m i c a n d Te c h n o l o g y Development, Cyndi Baily, Deputy General Counsel, Silke Blohm, Manager of the Office of Research Services, and Moody Altamimi, Associate Program Coordinator in GCR. With Deborah Runkle of the AAAS, Peter co-chaired a session on Integrity in the Digital Age and has been invited to be a member of the committee organizing the 3rd World Conference on Research Integrity.

The timing of the 2nd World Conference could not have been better, as Peter and his colleagues have just finished drafting the KAUST “Code of Practice for Responsible Conduct of Research”. Currently under consideration by senior management, the draft benefited considerably from the Singapore discussions.

To underline the importance of this issue – a series of sessions on research integrity, presented by invited experts, is being planned for the 2011 Winter Enrichment Program. ‎

by Peter Brooks Economic and Technology Development

To prove the success of a new skin graft techni que, William Summerlin used a novel if simple approach to falsify data: he made dark patche s on the fur of white mice with a black marker. His deception was revealed when lab assista nts noticed that the markings could be removed by alcohol. This fraud case by the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Institu te researc her resulte d in the US Congress passing a law in 1985 requiring institutions that receive federal research money to set up a system to monito r and report those who break the rules. Summe rlin is now practicing medicine in rural Louisiana.

Eric Poehlman A researcher in human obesity at the University of Vermont, Dr. Poehlman has the distinction of being the first American academic to get a prison sentence for falsifying data in a grant application. A former research lab technician exposed his misconduct and, in 2005, the National Institutes of Health charged him with basing 17 grant applications on false data and found ten research papers to be fictitious.

According to the National Institutes of Health, this surgeon and researcher at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School was found to have “committed scientific misconduct by falsifying and fabricating data in reproductive system research supported in part by a Public Health Service grant”.

In 1995, Friedman admitted to altering and fabricating patient records, confessing that up to eighty percent of some reported data was false. He admitted at a state hearing that he just couldn’t handle the pressure of 80-90 hour weeks seeing patients, doing surgery, supervising students and doing research to maintain his reputation. “It was almost as though you’re on a treadmill that starts out slowly and gradually increases in speed. And it happens so gradually you don’t realize that eventually you’re just hoping you don’t fall off.” Perhaps surprisingly, he is now a senior director of clinical research at a pharmaceutical company.

Jan Hendrik Schön

A researcher in condensed matter physics and nanotechnology at Bell Labs (Lucent Technologies), Schön won numerous prizes, reportedly averaging one research paper every eight days. In 2001 he reported in a paper in Nature that he had produced a transistor on the molecular scale (with the potential to drastically reduce the cost of electronic components). A year later, an investigation, triggered by allegations from fellow physicists that his data con tain ed ano mal ies, foun d evidence of scientific misconduct in 16 instances and he admitted that he had falsified data. In 2004 the University of Konstanz revoked his doctoral degree due to “dishonourable conduct” stating that his was the “biggest fraud in physics in the last fifty years” and that the “credibility of science had been brought into disrepute.”

Erasmus Medal Winner on Research Integrity

Professor Lars Walloe, University of Oslo, (right) presenting award to Prof. Jean Fréchet

Professor Jean Fréchet, KAUST’s Vice President for Research, was recently honored with the ‎prestigious Erasmus Medal by the Academia Europaea. As the author of more than 800 papers ‎throughout his distinguished career in organic chemistry at the University of Ottawa, Cornell and ‎then Berkeley, it is not hard to see why Professor Frechet was chosen by the Academia (also ‎known as "the Academy of Europe"). The medal is awarded to a scholar “who has ‎maintained, over a sustained period, the highest level of international scholarship and recognition ‎by peers.” Integral to the annual ceremony is

a lecture to a distinguished audience by the medal ‎winner. Professor Frechet spoke on “Designing polymers for applications from technology to m ‎ edicine.” ‎ In discussion with The Beacon, Professor Frechet showed much more interest in talking about ‎the issue of research integrity than the honor bestowed upon him in early September. Noting that ‎it is a major concern within the research community worldwide, he said that it is difficult to know ‎whether incidents of fraud are increasing or whether technology is simply making the cases ‎more readily identifiable. ‎

He stressed that we need to build a culture at KAUST that recognizes that nothing is so important ‎that it justifies unethical practices. It is incumbent upon the research supervisors to implement ‎measures to ensure continuous checking of primary data. ‎ "It’s just like safety in the chemistry lab," Professor Frechet said, “if you don’t talk about it and ‎remind people about safe practices, the environment will be unsafe.

At KAUST we have to talk ‎about research integrity –– bring it out in the open and tell people what is right and what is wrong.” 

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OUT AND ABOUT

October 2010

The Beacon

JEDDAH: the obvious

HISTORY & CULTURE

Despite its modern façade, history and culture does exist in Jeddah if you take the time to look for it.

Nassief House, prominently situated in Al Balad, was built in 1881 for Sheik Omar Effendi Nassief, then Governor of Jeddah. The Nassief family gave this symbol of Jeddah’s past to the City as a museum and cultural centre in 1975. Khuzam Palace was the new residence of King Abdul Aziz in Jeddah when it was completed in 1932. Since 1995 it has housed the Regional Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography, open to the public from 8am-noon and 5-7pm (Fax: 02-636-4371).

The unique home of architect, Dr. Sami M. Angawi, the Al-Makkiyah Cultural Center is open for tours to groups of ten or more. The design combines old-world traditions and materials with new, environmentally sensitive construction techniques. The location for regular cultural forums, it also houses a small shop, Zekrayat Traditional Heritage Gallery, which features local and regional handicrafts. Call or email for appointments and tours: 02-606-4715 (amira.mashat@yahoo.com).

Art lovers will find hidden treasures in Jeddah. For contemporary art by Saudi and Arab artists, a must-see is the ATHR Gallery on the 5th floor of the Business centre, Serafi Mega Mall. It is open Saturday to Thursday 9am to 6pm (http://www.athrart.com/). Another special place is the gallery and studio of Jeddah born artist, Safeya Binzagr, whose work reflects Saudi history and culture.

Darat Safeya Binzagr includes the gallery, studio, classrooms and small shop. Open to the public Wednesday from 5:30-8:30pm and Thursday from 10:30am1:30pm. Call 02 657 1030 (www.daratsb.com)

Shopping

Shopping centers seem to be on every corner but where do you get the best deals? The Beacon was told that, for camera equipment and electronics, the Jeddah International Market tops the list and for computer parts, the City Centre Mall and eXtra in the Sultan Mall are the best. Jarir Bookstore stocks a wide variety of English books, electronics and arts and crafts supplies (find a store locator at http://www.jarirbookstore. com/).

Long-time residents recommend the Khayat Center for high-end brand goods from Chanel to Christian Dior on Tahliyah Street. Even if you can’t afford a SR27,000 dress, it’s a great place to window shop. And, for the opposite end of the spectrum, Mahmoud Saeed is a local bazaar style market has everything from furniture, electronic goods, kitchenware, toys and clothes to spices and it’s open till midnight.

FOOD

Choices abound for a night out or even a quick snack.

Here we bring you an eclectic selection of recommendations from the KAUST community. For maps and information on many restaurants, check out: http:// www.jeddahfood.com/ Top of the list from locals in the know is Al Nakheel Restaurant (02-606-6644). Here you can sit back and enjoy classic Arabic cuisine and music in a beautiful traditional setting. Bubbles (02-669-7655) and neighbouring Byblos (02-669-7655), which are jointly owned, are favourites for atmosphere and excellent food.

Promenade Café (02-668-8712) is recommended for

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HISTORY & CULTURE 1. Al Makkiya 2. ATHR Art Gallery 3. Darat Safeya Bin Zagr Gallery 4. Nassief House 5. Khuzam Palace SHOPPING 1. Jarir Mall (Jarir Bookstore) 2. City Center Mall

3. Sultan Mall (eXtra Electronics) 4. Mahmoud Saeed 5. Jeddah International Markets 6. Khayat Center 7. IKEA 8. SACO RESTAURANTS 1. Thai Thai Restaurant 2. Ginza I Chome

(Rosewood Hotel) 3. Al Nakheel Restaurant 4. Tenidor Restaurant 5. Toki Restaurant 6. Promenade Café 7. Goodies 8. Munch Bakery 9. Bubbles Restaurant 10. Abazeer Organic Foods

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CHILDREN 1. Roshan Mall 1 (Childcare) 2. Oceanica Theme Park (Red Sea Mall) 3. Atallah Theme Park 4. Sultan Mall (Childcare) 5. Ice Land Ice 1Skating 1 6. Al-Shallal Theme 5 5 Park 4 3 4 3

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its fresh continental menu –– a great place to relax after a shopping spree on Tahliyah Street.

For Chinese food, Toki (02-664-2819) is reported to be the best, while Ginza I Chome (02-257-8888) in the Rosewood Hotel rated top for sushi and sashimi and Thai Thai restaurant on Prince Sultan (02-691-3808) will bring back memories of Bangkok.

For home cooks Goodies has a great selection of international products, and for organic fresh produce check out Abazeer (02-661-2285), an organic grocery store, for fresh produce.

For the Kids

Our own campus offers a multitude of recreational activities, however we don’t yet have roller coasters or an ice rink.

Atallah Happy Land (02-669-1157) and Al-Shallal (02606-3993), both on the Corniche, have fun-fair rides for the whole family. The latter also has ice skating and roller skating rinks. Another popular rink is Ice Land (02-6626666) on Prince Sultan Street. All have special family and female-only times –– best to call ahead.

Most malls have playgrounds for kids and, to enjoy hasslefree shopping, parents can take advantage of childcare at Sultan and Roshan Malls for just SR25/hour per child.

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OUT AND ABOUT

The Beacon

Whether one has been at KAUST for a month or a year, there are always new and exciting places to discover in Jeddah. We present here an eclectic mix of places that are perhaps obvious to some but a revelation to others. If you have suggestions for a subsequent update to this map, please send them on to: thebeacon@ kaust.edu.sa

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Old Jeddah

Known by many as a shopper’s paradise, the various souks of Al Balad (“the town” in Arabic) offer the adventurer everything from gold to frankincense and electronics to abayas. Starting at Nassief House, look beyond the shops and meander through the narrow alleyways lined with three- to five-story buildings harking back to the days when Jeddah was a walled city and just four gates allowing restricted access. Constructed of coral and clay, the height of the centuries-old buildings provided the residents daytime shade on the ground and rooftop breezes in the evenings. Unique wooden shades on the balconies provided ventilation and privacy while still affording those inside a good view of the street.

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TAXIS TO JEDDAH SAUDI OGER RATES Phone Nos.: 808-017, 808-5624 or 808-5625 Taxi within KAUST

SR20 per trip (max 30 mins)

Full size sedan

SR125 per trip (max 1 hour)

Additional SR50 per hour in excess of the first hour plus SR1.00 per km in excess of 150 kms

SUV

SR250 per trip (max 1 hour)

Additional SR75 per hour in excess of the first hour plus SR1.50 per km in excess of 150 kms

Full size sedan

SR 180 (each way)

SR 270 (roundtrip with 1 hour wait for airport)

SUV

SR 250 (each way)

SR 450 (roundtrip with 1 hour wait for airport)

30 Passenger Bus

SR 300 (each way)

SR 500 (roundtrip with 1 hour wait for airport)

Taxi within 150 kms

Jeddah Airport Pickup/Drop

HANCO RATES Jeddah Airport or City Drop

Email: kausttaxi@kaust.edu.sa

Full size sedan

Phone Nos.: 808-5647 or 050-234-5114

Email: transportation@kaust.edu.sa

Full size sedan

SR 180 (each way)

SR 270 (roundtrip with 1 hour wait for airport)

SUV (Standard size)

SR 250 (each way)

SR 450 (roundtrip with 1 hour wait for airport)

SUV (Large size)

SR 300 (each way)

SR 500 (roundtrip with 1 hour wait for airport)

TAXIS IN JEDDAH (Recommended by KAUST residents)

JEDDAH BY BUS

1. Alla @ 050-367-9287 2. Anthony @ 059-612-8342 3. Ali @ 050-163-9700

Check the most recent schedule at http://logistics. kaust.edu.sa, then click on "Transportation"

5 ALL PHOTOS BY ABDULGAFOOR ABDULHALEEM, PHOTOGRAPHY SDG

and beyond

October 2010

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IN DEPTH

October 2010

The Beacon JUDY LOVE-EASTHAM

VISUALIZING A NABATAEAN TOMB Growing up in Saudi Arabia, Dina Garatly, Content Modeler and Producer in the Visualization Lab, never expected to get to know a small part of her country as intimately as she now knows Mada’in Saleh (Al-Hajir). This UNESCO World Heritage site, near Al-Ula about 700km north northwest of KAUST, was the second largest city of the first century Nabataean Kingdom (the first being Petra). In order to model one of the 131 Nabataean tombs in the former Hegra, she not only painstakingly examined the sandstone rock formations but also had to simulate the carving technique of the master craftsmen. “Getting the texture right was the hardest part,” she said.

The initial idea for the model came through discussion with Dr. Alyn Rockwood, KAUST Professor of Applied Mathematics and a member of the Geometric Modeling and Visualization Research Center. It took shape quickly when they discovered that KAUST resident Laurence Hapiot was an archaeologist and physical anthropologist just finishing her Ph.D., which focuses on nutritional and sanitary environments in ancient Greece. Laurence then located other French archaeologists, Drs. Laïla Nehmé and François Villeneuve, who were working on a project at Mada’in Saleh. They connected her to their Saudi collaborator and leading Arab archaeologist, Dr. Dalfallah Al-Talhi, former Director General, Research & Survey Center, Ministry of Antiquities & Museums and now at the University of Ha’il.

For the first few months, Dina worked only with drawings and photographs supplied by the archaeological team, but the rendering took on a new dimension after she and Laurence visited Al-Ula and neighbouring Mada’in Saleh in May. As they neared the Qasr al-Bint Group at the site, Dina immediately recognized “her tomb.”

The resulting 3D model is an amazing representation of the chosen Nabataean burial place. Virtually, one can look down on the sandstone mountain in which it is carved, “fly” down and into the tomb itself, walk around the interior and

look up to the smaller room above the main tomb.

Dina and Laurence hope to see this project expanded through collaboration with a laser scanning company. This would provide more accurate data and increase the resolution and extent of the model.

This project and its possible future expansion are not only significant to archaeology and tourism, but have much broader implications at KAUST. Archaeologists would benefit from the opportunity to use such technology to preserve the history of the site before they dig deeper to uncover artifacts from earlier times. As Laurence says: “We have to pass through a layer to reach the one underneath in order to learn and preserve.” Archaeologist Tom Levy from University of California, San Diego, showed guests and KAUST's inauguration last year a graphic representation of an archaeological excavation site at Petra. Presented in KAUST’s Advanced Computation and Visualisation Facility, CORNEA, one travels virtually down to the bottom of the site, examining layers of artifacts from successive periods in history along the way.

Dr. Al-Talhi told The Beacon that "I am sure that these efforts by the KAUST team will shed more light on the archaeology of Saudi Arabia and it is wonderful that the technology is being developed in this country." The greatest benefit to KAUST, however, are the lessons learned by Dina while working on this particular project. The steps she has taken, the understanding that she has gained will enable future projects using visualization equipment to proceed more smoothly. She will be sharing her experience with students and working collaboratively with faculty to use what she has learned in a wide variety of applications. ‎ MAIN PICTURE: Archaeological excavation at Petra graphically represented in CORNEA INSET: Dr. Steve Cutchin

seeing is believing When Christopher Columbus returned to Spain from his voyages of discovery, his sponsors could not have grasped the extent of his exploration without a crudely drawn map. No matter how inaccurate his representation of the New World, Columbus’ basic pictorial representation of his travels would have had more impact than a thousand of his words.

Over the centuries, hand drawings of maps, diagrams and graphs gave way to copper plate (manually coloured), lithography, photo-etching and, most recently, interactive computer software. Advances in statistical computation as well as graphic displays now provide tools for visualization of data and information that would have been considered science fiction just fifty years ago.

Strolling along Discovery Walk outside the Visualization Lab Showcase in KAUST's Al Khawarzimi Building, you can’t help but stop and check out the latest images on the giant display screens. Whether they are showing a model of a kneeling Terracotta Warrior, the structure of a protein, a gas plume or a sectioned rat’s brain, the images draw you in, stimulating your curiosity.

Just as Columbus’ audience better understood his travels by a visualization of his route, so too scientists across multiple disciplines can

understand each other’s complex analyses and problems by representing them graphically. These images enable a scientist to share the results of research with others who, viewing it from a different perspective could extend or enhance such work. According to Steve Cutchin “visualization tools give us new ways to look at old data.”

KAUST’s world class visualization facilities, coupled with the power of Shaheen, give scientists a powerful way to interact with data in real time. They observe not just a picture, but rather a three dimensional “live” object they can walk around, get underneath or inside, and manipulate with new data. And teams of scientists can do this together, collaborating around the world, just as KAUST’s Visualization Lab Showcase itself was built.

Before Steve Cutchin came to KAUST he was working in the VirtuLab at the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) at UC San Diego. The Showcase was designed by pioneer computer graphics researcher, Tom DeFanti and was prototyped at Calit2. The summer before inauguration, Steve and his KAUST team moved to Thuwal and assembled the Showcase piece by piece on site with remote help from both Calit2 and the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

When KAUST opened its doors to the world last year, Showcase (comprising the NexCAVE, REV-CAVE and other state-of-the-art tiled display walls) was just one of the features of the Visualization Core Lab. Media interest was

Getting there:

Independent travel by car from KAU ST to Al-Ula takes approximately eight hours. Man y sections of the inland route north of Medina offer impressive mountain scenery and the road s are, for the most part, excellent. A first stop if you' re considering the trip would be to the GASC serv ice desk in the Administration Building to get the most recent travel advisories for the region.

Most local tour companies provide private and group tours. Currently, tours usually inclu de a flight from Jeddah to Medina with a transfer from Medina to Al-Ula by road. However, the Al-Ula airport is due to open by the end of 2010, offering a direct and faster route from Jeddah.

Site Permit:

Entry to the World Heritage site requ ires a visitor permit. Either of the two hotels in Al-Ula can provide this service when you book your room.

Hotels:

Mada’in Saleh Hotel: http://www.ms hotel.com.sa/ Al-Ula Arac Resort: http://www.arac-h otels.com

especially focused on CORNEA (from the Arabic word, Al-Qarniya) which was the most advanced virtual reality research space in the world. Built for KAUST by Mechdyne in collaboration with Calit2, it is an advanced form of CAVE (CAVE automatic virtual environment), the first of which was developed and trademarked by the University of Chicago in 1992. CORNEA is a fully-immersive cubic 3D virtual reality environment which combines an image resolution of one hundred million pixels with a spatial surround sound audio system. The visual and acoustic experiences combine eerily to mimic reality.

Adjacent to CORNEA, the multipurpose room (MPR) offers a stereoscopic environment with 32 million pixels for 3D resolution and 20.4 Digital Surround Sound for impressive audio clarity and manipulative ability. The aptly-named MPR provides a reconfigurable dynamic collaborative display environment for interdisciplinary research and can also be linked to CORNEA to enable collaboration by researchers in both spaces as well as via high bandwidth video-links around the world.

The Visualization Lab holds an open house to display the capabilities of its facilities every Sunday from 11am to 1pm. Check them out –– you’ll be impressed! ‎

IN DEPTH / TECHNOLOGY

The Beacon

PHOTOS BY BAHIR SKINNER AND TERRY KING, PHOTOGRAPHY SDG

Dina Garatly worked with archaeologist’s drawings to ‘carve’ the model of the tomb

October 2010

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LAB GEAR This month we peer into KAUST's Visualization Lab Showcase, and get a run-down on the NexCAVE 3D virtual environment.

ILLUSTRATION: CHRIS KENDALL

CHRIS KEND

ALL

NexCAVE Interactive Visualization System

journey back in time The intricately carved tombs of the Nabataean Kingdom of Mada’in Saleh or Al-Hijr (Arabic for “rocky place”) are, undoubtedly the most spectacular reason to venture north to the Al-Ula region of Saudi Arabia. But this isn’t the only remarkable site in an area well traveled by traders and pilgrims alike for centuries.

Lying 350 km north of Medina and 20 km south of Mada’in Saleh, the ancient oasis town of Al-Ula (previously Dedan) was the capital of the Lihyanites (or Dedanites) from 552 to 100 BC. A key stop along the ancient caravan trade route from incense and spice-producing areas of southern Arabia (Yemen) to the Mediterranean basin, it was a thriving Islamic settlement by the 13th Century.

The town was built at the narrowest point in a valley surrounded by high plateaus. To afford maximum protection from both flash floods and invading tribes, the houses, built from the stones of nearby Lihyanite ruins, formed the city walls. Narrow, covered lanes wound between them. A large open market area, once heaving with life on a daily basis, is now used only for an annual celebration.

In the 20th century, a new town centre was built to the south but the old town of Al-Ula remained a living community until the last family moved out in 1983. The site is now being preserved with some 800 homes still in evidence, a few carefully restored. Winding along narrow streets, peering through open doors and climbing ancient stone steps, one can almost hear the echoes of voices from the past.

Underlying both Al-Ula and Mada’in Saleh is the Al-Ula basin, a vast reservoir of fresh groundwater trapped in the sedimentary layers formed millions of years ago. Al-Ula farmers tap this reservoir to nurture the numerous date palms that are renowned in the area.

To the north, within the UNESCO World Heritage Site at Mada’in Saleh, is the Mada’in Saleh Hejaz Railway station.

JUDY LOVE-EASTHAM

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: Old Town of Al-Ula nestled between jagged mountains, Hejaz railway steam engine, Railway maintenance shed, Mada’in Saleh station

It was one of fifty similar structures built along the route for pilgrims traveling from Damascus to Medina. Conceived in 1897, work began on the railroad in 1900 after subscriptions totalling £8 million were raised throughout the Islamic world.

Opened in 1908, the route not only cut the journey for pilgrims to the holy city from two months by camel caravan to four days, but also offered the Ottoman government a means to transport troops and ammunition to its military outpost in Medina. In its short ten year lifespan the total number of passengers carried was over 1.3 million, 25 percent of whom were military personnel.

Suffering declining revenues, Bedouin camel train operators often stopped and raided the trains, forcing the Turks to provide armed guards along the route. Ultimately, the use of the Hejaz railway for troop movement served as its undoing. T.E. Lawrence famously crippled the line in several places during the Arab Revolt of 1916 and it never recovered.

One of the most popular rest stops for pilgrims, the station and rest area at Mada’in Saleh has been well preserved.

It consists of a number of stone buildings, including an engine maintenance facility which houses one of the original steam engines, and a few open cars which hint at the lack of comfort endured by passengers.

Back in town, the Al-Ula Museum of Archaeology & Ethnography is well worth a visit. It is a treasure trove of information on the history and natural environment of the region.

All in all –– spectacular rock formations, remarkable sandstone-carved Nabataean tombs, an infamous railway and the remains of an ancient town make a trip to Mada’in Saleh and Al-Ula a “must” for a long weekend’s travel agenda. 

Infrared tracking sensors

The KAUST/UCSD Special Partnership in Visualization developed a 21-panel virtual ‎reality system called NexCAVE. The NexCAVE is a scalable, interactive 3-D ‎visualization environment made of HDTV micro-polarized JVC LCD flat-screens ‎forming an arch-shaped section of a sphere.‎ The NexCAVE advances VR in two ways over projector based CAVEs. Projectors ‎are inherently hard to align and keep aligned.

The NexCAVE panels’ left- and ‎right-eye images are perfectly aligned, thus the eye fatigue from imperfect ‎alignment in a classic CAVE is significantly reduced. Researchers would like to do a ‎study to compare both methods.‎ ‎ ‎Second, the active display technology of LCDs allows the NexCAVE to be installed in ‎normally lit rooms. Traditional CAVE systems require darkened surroundings to ‎maintain quality interaction environments. The NexCAVE has excellent contrast, ‎brightness, and low ghosting, even with fluorescent lights. This allows the ‎NexCAVE to be installed in more settings.‎ Each column of JVC displays is a separate module with the system expanded by ‎adding columns. The control computers are connected via standard 10-gigabit ‎networking. Across the top of the system are infrared cameras tracking the users' ‎positions and movements. Users wear passive stereo glasses that let each eye see a ‎different image from the same screen, creating a virtual three dimensional ‎environment.‎ Combining real-time graphics and PC audio, the NexCAVE includes a 5.1 Meyer ‎Sound system. The NexCAVE is connected to the KAUST Internet allowing KAUST ‎researchers to collaborate with colleagues worldwide.‎ The NexCAVE’s necessary display tilting is physically achieved by slightly ‎overlapping the screens (see diagram). This works better than one might expect ‎and, in spite of borders, is not disruptive to viewing 3D scenes. If an image is ‎blocked by a border, the viewer moves to look around the border, as one would ‎through a window with mullions. ‎ A f u l l fl o o r a n d c e i l i n g NexCAVE has not been attempted, but in the future it could be built ‎to create a spherical environment.‎ The NexCAVE system is well suited for faculty and students to review and ‎manipulate 3D data of all kinds. KAUST students and faculty are using the ‎NexCAVE for development.‎

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COMMUNITY

October 2010

photo of the month

EVERY month The Beacon showcases the work of one of the many talented ‎photographers on campus. Can you do better than this month's selection? Submit original photos that are relevant to the university

The Beacon

–– and not just shots of campus buildings! Send in your unique, imaginative take on whatever strikes you, and ‎if your photo is chosen you’ll have the thrill of seeing your work in print!‎

BOOK REVIEWS MADA’IN SALEH

by Mohammed Babelli

Email your photos to thebeacon@kaust.edu.sa

Desert Publisher, Riyadh (01-476-6106) ISBN: 978-603-00-2777-4

This beautiful coffee table book includes engaging information as well as striking photographs of the Al-Ula region. Saudi engineer and photographer, Mohammed Babelli, has included a chapter on each of the three key sites – the ancient Nabataean tombs, the old city of Dedan and the stations and sites along the Hejaz Railway. His vivid images of landscapes, sandstone-carved crypts and 12th century buildings are an excellent keepsake for those who have visited and a motivation for those who have yet to do so.

THE NABATAEAN TOMB INSCRIPTIONS OF MADA’IN SALIH

by John F. Healey

Oxford University Press, 1993 Call No. 492.29 NAB

TERRY KING, PHOTOGRAPHY SDG

My university Wail ba Alawi Born in Dammam and a B.S. (Honors) graduate of King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, ‎Wail was one of the first students to be recruited for KAUST and expects to graduate in December 2010.‎ The opportunities provided to him and his fellow students through the global collaboration ‎program have exceeded his expectations. He feels fortunate that he and his fellow students had ‎internships in places like MIT, Berkeley, Stanford and IBM, hearing lectures and undertaking ‎research with top professors from these and other eminent institutions.‎

Pursuing an M.Sc. in Computer Science, Wail has spent the past two summers in the United ‎Kingdom working on medical imaging projects at Oxford. This work has stimulated his interest ‎in bioinformatics and he hopes in the future to build systems which enhance ‎biologists’ ability to manipulate and interpret data. ‎ Inspired by a course on entrepreneurship in last year’s Winter Enrichment Program, Wail ‎hopes to eventually combine academia with business and have his own company ‎while teaching as a college professor. ‎

CHRIS KENDALL

Originally from Changchun in northeast China and a graduate of Jilin University, Lan Zhao ‎came to KAUST from Singapore where she worked for three years in the Institute of ‎Bioengineering and Nanotechnology. ‎ While the state-of-the-art instrumentation in the Core Labs was the major incentive for Lan ‎to come to KAUST, she and her husband (Assistant Professor Yu Han) were also interested in ‎the opportunity to live and work in Saudi Arabia. ‎

Reflecting on her years as an inorganic scientist, working primarily as an independent researcher, Lan ‎says that her job as a research scientist in the Imaging and Characterization Core facility is ‎the most fulfilling to date.

"Helping people makes me happy," she said, and this position gives her the opportunity to work with a wide variety of people in many disciplines and, while helping them, she is continually learning. Lan told The Beacon, “KAUST turned out to be even better than I expected.”‎

TERRY KING, PHOTOGRAPHY SDG

Dr. Lan Zhao

Mohammed Sulemain Baloshi Born and raised in Jeddah, Mohammed has been working with The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf ‎Company for four years, almost a year of that at KAUST. As Lead Barista at their outlet in the ‎Administration building, Mohammed feels as if a whole new world has opened up to him.

Naturally inquisitive and friendly, he enjoys chatting with his customers as he serves them, ‎sharing experiences and discussing the various cultures represented on campus as well as the ‎news of the day. But his thirst for knowledge doesn’t end

when his day is done at KAUST. He’s a voracious reader and, intent on furthering his education, will soon start ‎evening classes at Arab Open University working toward a degree in accounting. Eventually, Mohammed hopes to use his experience in the food industry and knowledge gained through business studies to start up his own business. ‎Commenting on the friendliness of KAUST people, Mohammed said, “You feel like you are ‎working with your family and, when you work with your family, you do your best work.” ‎ ‎‎

This scholarly book p r o v i d e s t h e fi r s t detailed study of the tomb inscriptions of the ancient Nabotaean city of Mada’in Saleh in northwest Saudi Arabia. The archaeological complex of Mada’in Saleh, also known as the historic village of Al-Hajir, is one of the best-preserved ancient sites in the Kingdom and the tomb inscriptions provide important evidence about the customs and language of the Nabataean people. Along with fifty photographs and detailed descriptions of these inscriptions, the book offers a background on Nabataean history and language and its connection to Arabic. Whether you are a specialist in Nabataean epigraphy, someone wanting to learn more about the ancient history of our region or someone planning a trip to this important archaeological site, this book is worth checking out. The book is available at the Harbor Library under its call number. 

DISCOVERY TEAM VISITS KAUST Professor Choon Fong HRH Prince Sultan bin Salman, Shih, President of KAUST, Dr. Brian Moran and KAUST students Abubakr Saeed and Luca Passone welcomed astronaut HRH Prince Sultan bin Salman (along with five of his colleagues from the 1985 Discovery space mission) to KAUST on Wednesday, September 29th. Celebrating the 25th anniversary of the voyage on which Prince Sultan served as a Payload Specialist, the delegation is touring the Kingdom. A fighter pilot, Prince Sultan is also President and Chairman of the Board of the Saudi Commission for Tourism & Antiquities.

Quoted in Aramco World, Prince Sultan said “The Arab world is at a turning point. We have gone through the phases of oil, money and early technological development. The new generation is looking forward to joining the rest of the world by obtaining the most important things in that turnaround: opportunity and education.

Together they are the keys that open the door for our future. My space flight is just a crack in that door.” ‎