The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) and the Center of Advanced Materials for the Purification of Water with Systems (WaterCAMPWS) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have signed a three-year collaborative research agreement with the newly established King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia for research of mutual interest in the areas of environmental sciences and engineering and water desalination and reuse.
“This project represents an ideal partnership between a world-class university, the University of Illinois, and a new university built on an inspirational concept in research, KAUST, to address the world’s most challenging problem—clean and abundant water for life-sustenance,” said CEE department head Amr Elnashai. “The Illinois team possesses the richness of research culture and state-of-the-art laboratories that will not only advance clean water research but also underpin capacity-building in KAUST and Saudi Arabia.”
Charles Werth
Charles Werth
Under the agreement, KAUST will provide $5 million in funds to be shared by researchers at both U of I and KAUST. The agreement provides $3 million for collaborative research with CEE researchers in any area of environmental engineering and $2 million for research in water desalination and reuse with researchers from the WaterCAMPWS, which is a National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center based in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering.
Benito Mariñas
Benito Mariñas
Charles J. Werth, a professor with the CEE Environmental Engineering and Science (EE&S) group, is serving as Principal Investigator (PI) for the collaborative agreement. Professor Benito J. Mariñas of the EE&S group and Mark A. Shannon, director of the Water CAMPWS and a professor of mechanical science and engineering, are Co-Principal Investigators. "
"The Middle East has a lot of challenging and unique environmental problems,” Werth remarked “This agreement provides us with new resources and the opportunity to develop long-term collaborations in a strategic part of the world, where the challenges they face are the challenges we will face in the near future.
Mark Shannon
Mark Shannon
“We will become more familiar with, and we will better understand, the problems they face and their culture, so we can begin to address those problems in a sustainable way. Further, we have the unique opportunity to contribute to the development of a top-notch, open, and inclusive university.”
Founded through an endowment by King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the university is being constructed on more than 14 square miles along the Red Sea at Thuwal, about 50 miles north of Saudi Arabia's second largest city, Jeddah. Admission is open to both men and women. KAUST’s vision is to be the premier institution for higher education in the Middle East, “dedicated to inspiring a new age of scientific achievement in Saudi Arabia, the region and the world.”
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Contact: Celeste Arbogast Bragorgos, director of communications, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 217/333-6955.
If you have any questions about the College of Engineering, or other story ideas, contact Rick Kubetz, Engineering Communications Office, 217/244-7716, editor.