Dow boosts innovation in Saudi Arabia

Dow Chemical has finalised its plans to invest in innovation in Saudi Arabia through support of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). A comprehensive cooperation agreement signed this week establishes Dow's Middle East and Africa R&D Center on the university's campus at KAUST.

Markus Wildi heads up Dow Chemical

in the Middle East

Dow and KAUST will collaborate on a range of academic research programs tailored to KAUST's areas of excellence in research and education. In particular, Dow will conduct R&D in the KAUST Innovation Cluster facilities until a permanent Dow facility in the KAUST Research Park is completed. Research will initially focus on water, water treatment technologies and oil and gas, and later expanding to include fields of study pertaining to infrastructure.

Dow will provide opportunities and funding to educate and train citizens of Saudi Arabia. Dow has already offered academic development opportunities and extended permanent offers of employment to KAUST students and will continue to do so. Dow will also provide financial support for research challenge competitions. Firstly, in alignment with Dow's 2015 Sustainability Goals, KAUST will administer the Dow Sustainability Innovation Student Research Challenge Program, which recognizes and rewards students for their innovation and research of sustainable solutions to the world's most pressing social, economic and environmental problems.

Dow's Middle East president Markus Wildi, said, "the Dow R&D Center at KAUST is a reflection of our commitment to the intellectual and human potential of this distinguished institution. Our collaboration agreement lends strong support to the notion that Saudi Arabia will become an engine of innovation and a generator of solutions for modern developmental challenges like clean water supply and sustainable living."

US dominates chemical research over 10 years

Academics with US affiliations took 70 out of the top 100 slots in a recent listing of the world's leading chemists, published by the UK's Times Higher Education. Ranked by the impact of their citations over the past decade, as monitored by Thomson Reuters, the listing also shows that no fewer than 60% cited nanotechnology as their major field of research or interest.

Lieber - prolific and top ranking chemist

No other country came close. The next in the list was Germany with seven leading chemists and then the UK, with four. The top two academics in the UK were from the QUILL laboratory in Queens University, Belfast, cited for their work on ionic liquids. They are Professor Ken Seddon and Dr John Holbrey.

QUILL represents a classic academic/industry consortium for innovation in green chemistry and was founded in 1999 with 17 founder members, including Bioplymer Engineering; BNFL; BP Amoco; Chem Vite; Chevron; DuPont; Elementis; Exxon; ICI; Merck; Sachem; Sasol; Schering Plough; SmithKline Beecham; Solvay; UOP; and Zeneca. QUILL's current membership includes Chevron; Clea Technologies; Cristal Millennium; Cytec; Eastman Chemicals; Enviroways Technologies; Givaudan; Invista; Merck; Petronas; Procter & Gamble; SACHEM; Shell; Strata; Koei; and Umicore.

For the record, the top ranking chemist was Charles Lieber of Harvard University, with 74 papers published and 17,776 citations!