INSIDE: News 3 Community 4Research 1-2

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology at Thuwal, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

www.kaust.edu.sa

BEACONthe ة املنـار

July/August 2013 / Ramadan/Shawwal 1434 Volume 3, Issue No. 11

ASSISTANT Professor of Chemistry and Biology and Principal

Investigator of the Laboratory of DNA Replication and Recombination

Dr. Samir M. Hamdan and his team have published a groundbreaking

paper on the mechanism of flap endonuclease 1 (FEN1) in the journal

Cell Reports. The other authors of the paper entitled "Sequential and

Multistep Substrate Interrogation Provides the Scaffold for Specificity

in Human Flap Endonuclease 1" are Mohamed A. Sobhy, Luay I.

Joudeh, Xiaojuan Huang, and Masateru Takahashi.

5' nucleases, the superfamily to which FEN1 belongs, represent

structure-specific nucleases essential for DNA replication, repair, and

recombination. Deficiencies in their genes have been linked to sev-

eral types of cellular stress and genomic instability. Their outstanding

puzzle is that they are highly conserved proteins, yet they recognize a

diverse range of RNA and DNA structures and cleave them primarily at

the same position relative to a 5' end of a junction.

Structural studies propose a solution for this geometrical puzzle by

capturing a DNA-bending intermediary step that positions the 5' end in

the enzyme's active pocket and unifies the 5' nuclease's cleavage site.

However, these structures remain a static image of the DNA-bending

intermediary step based on which speculation was made to address

the most important questions regarding how this intermediary step is

induced and how 5' nucleases utilize the same intermediary step to rec-

ognize a diverse range of substrates.

The team from KAUST's Division of Biological and Environmental

Sciences and Engineering employed a sophisticated single molecule

imaging technique, Förster resonance energy transfer (smFRET), to cap-

ture "molecular movies" detailing the structure, dynamics, and reaction

mechanisms occurring during this process. The KAUST scientists were

able to build a timeline of up to seven intermediary steps before FEN1

commits to catalysis. Such information cannot be accessed through

conventional approaches.

These findings will influence how researchers think about the mecha-

nism of other members of 5' nucleases and provide a new concept as to

how biological macromolecules can diversify their substrate specificity

while maintaining a high degree of structural similarities.

Dr. Hamdan explained that the surprising finding is that FEN1

utilizes a highly complex mechanism that sequentially verifies all

substrate features before inducing the superfamily unifying DNA-

bending intermediary. This sequential and multistep substrate

recognition process provides a scaffold that allows different 5' nucle-

ases to recognize different substrates and restrict the induction of

DNA bending to the last common step. "We hope that our findings will

serve as a base to design inhibitors against FEN1, whose expression

is highly correlated with tumor aggressiveness," said Prof. Hamdan.

The article may be accessed at Cell Report. Volume 3, Issue 6, 1785-

1794, 06 June 2013. MEMBRANES | Continued on p2

KAUST RESEARCHERS INVESTIGATE PROPERTIES OF BLOCK COPOLYMER MEMBRANESKAUST researchers examined a type of mem-

brane with uniformly sized pores that could be

used in biomedical or water treatment appli-

cations in a paper published recently in the

journal Soft Matter (http://pubs.rsc.org/en/

Content/ArticleLanding/2013/SM/c3sm27475f).

“The membranes examined in the paper are

very specific,” says Dr. Suzana Nunes, Associate

Image reproduced by perm

ission of Suzana P Nunes and The Royal Society of Chem

istry from Soft M

atter, 2013, 9, 5557-5564, DOI: 10.1039/C3SM

27475F.Prof. Suzana N

unes and colleagues’ work w

as featured on the inside front cover of the journal Soft Matter. Im

age by KAUST Scientific Illustrator O

lga Kasimova.

Reprinted from Cell Reports, 3, M

ohamed A. Sobhy et al, Sequential and M

ultistep Substrate Interrogation Provides the Scaffold for Specificity in H

uman Flap Endonuclease 1, 1785-1794, 2013, w

ith permission from

Elsevier.

Figure 1. Dynamics of FEN1 Bending of DF-6,1 by smFRET(A) A schematic diagram of FEN1 reaction on DF-6,1.

(B) Structure of FEN1 in complex with SF-0,1; Protein Data Bank (PDB) code 3Q8L (Tsutakawa et al., 2011). The conserved and unique structural features that interact with the bent DNA conformation are depicted and

labeled in the same color.

CAPTURING MOLECULAR MOVIES OF DNA REPLICATION AND REPAIR

Principal Investigator of the Laboratory of DNA Replication and Recombination Dr. Hamdan and his team have published a groundbreaking paper in the journal Cell Reports.

مرحبًا بالربوفسور جان لو- شاموWELCOME PROFESSOR JEAN-LOU CHAMEAU

PROFESSOR Jean-Lou Chameau joined KAUST as the new president on July 1. We welcome

him and his wife, Dr. Carol Carmichael, to the KAUST family.

تولى الدكتور جان – لو شامو منصب رئيس جامعة الملك عبداهلل للعلوم والتقنية بتاريخ األول من شهر يوليو لعام 2013. ويطيب لنا أن نرحب بانضمامه هو وزوجته الدكتورة كارول كارمايكل، إلى أسرة جامعة الملك عبداهلل.

باحثون من جامعة امللك عبداهلل يدرسون خصائص أغشية كتلة

البوليمر املشرتك

تتمه صفحة 2

قام علماء وباحثني من جامعة امللك عبداهلل بإجراء جتارب على نوع جديد وخاص من األغشية املسامية التطبيقات يف تستخدم أن ميكن واليت املتجانسة هذا وقاد املياه. وحتلية معاجلة أو احليوية الطبية الكيميائية اهلندسة يف املشارك االستاذ البحث وإعادة حتلية أحباث مركز يف وعضو والبيولوجية نونيز، سوزانا الدكتور اجلامعة يف املياه استخدام وشاركها يف هذا البحث كل من الربوفسور كالوس- فيكتور بينيمان أستاذ اهلندسة الكيميائية والبيولوجية يف املسامية واملواد املتطورة األغشية مركز يف الدكتوراه طاليب إىل إضافة عبداهلل، امللك جامعة

ديبورا سالومون ماركيز ونيكوال مورينو شابارو.

2 July/August 2013 The Beacon

THIS month we welcome our new president Jean-Lou Chameau and his wife Carol to the KAUST

community. We look forward to Prof. Chameau’s leadership and to getting to know both of them.

Although many professors, researchers, students, and staff members are away on vacation, at con-

ferences, or collaborating at other universities, exciting work continues at KAUST as is demonstrated

by the articles on the research of Prof. Samir Hamdan, Prof. Suzana Nunes and Prof. Muhammad

Mustafa Hussain. Some students are pursuing internships in industry and at universities around the

globe. Check the charts and map on page 3 for more information about them. Summer is also the

time awards are conferred. The accolades on page 4 honor Dean Yves Gnanou, two PhD students

and a postdoc. Recreation Services summer camp was a welcome respite for children and parents as

the photos on page 4 illustrate. No matter how you are spending the rest of your summer, we wish

you an enjoyable time, a Ramadan Kareem and Eid Mubarak. See you in September.

The Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 11, July/August 2013. Published by The Communications Department, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia. Contact Salah Sindi salah.sindi@kaust.edu.sa, or Michelle D'Antoni michelle.dantoni@kaust.edu.sa © King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. Printed on partially recycled paper.

—THE BEACON Editorial

“GRAPHENE shows extraordinary properties,” says Dr. Muhammad Mustafa Hussain, Associate

Professor of Electrical Engineering. Graphene, a single layer of carbon atoms forming a

two-dimensional honeycombed sheet, is a material that has attracted much attention from

researchers, with the elucidation of its properties winning scientists from the UK the Nobel

Prize in Physics in 2010.

In a paper recently published in the journal ACS Nano (http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/

nn400796b), Prof. Hussain and colleagues from KAUST’s Integrated Nanotechnology Lab, including

research scientist Dr. Casey Smith and PhD student Ramy Qaisi, and researchers from Texas State

University (US) examined a graphene-based transistor which can achieve room temperature high elec-

tron mobility of >11,000 cm2/V ∙ s at a very low drive voltage of ±1 V. This means that faster data

processing speeds can be achieved with less energy, as graphene could replace III-V semiconductor

materials for high-speed communications.

Other researchers’ work with back-gated field effect transistors (FET) with graphene has utilized

high dielectric constant materials such as silicon nitride (Si3N4) or aluminum oxide (Al2O3) to help

in the optical detection of the graphene channel. However, these materials still necessitate high

switching voltage due to the high dielectric thickness needed for optical detection, and thus have

not been ideal. In addition, work has been hampered by showing high mobility at cryogenic tem-

perature (-273˚C).

Prof. Hussain and his collaborators state they overcame “important barriers” in their work with gra-

phene, fabricating back-gated FET on silicon wafers. They employed a technique called atomic layer

deposition (ALD) to deposit Al2O3 onto the wafers before transferring high-quality graphene that had

been synthesized in a process called atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition (APCVD). The large

(6 cm x 6 cm) graphene sheets cover most of the wafer’s surface, enabling the researchers to “circumvent

the need for optical detection during subsequent lithography steps.” The graphene was also patterned

into “fins” in the channel region, “transforming the graphene transistor architecture,” notes Prof. Hussain.

The researchers discovered that the switching ratio (ION/IOFF), a measure of the relative difference

in the source-drain current at two fixed gate voltages, could be enhanced more than 25x by the use

of lithographic techniques. These techniques would enable patterning graphene into stripes through

a manufacturing process that “maintains superior line edge roughness to mitigate the edge disorder

mobility impact,” Prof. Hussain explains. Reducing contact resistance could also result in higher

drive current, and other physical techniques could be used to enhance the graphene transistors.

Changing a device’s architecture, as the researchers showed in their work, “is much more appealing,”

notes Prof. Hussain, than changing its material and processes, as it remains more generic and can

comply with the various materials and processes already in use. And, by carrying out the experiments

at room temperature and with low operation voltage, Prof. Hussain hopes that his group’s work will

“encourage the scientific community to direct their discoveries towards more practical applications.”

“We have shown for the first time a pragmatic approach to fabricate graphene-based energy-

efficient devices while maintaining graphene’s extraordinary high-speed mobility,” says Prof.

Hussain. He believes that the work with his collaborators may “inspire others to continue with

their exploration of 2D materials such as graphene, which may result in the development of

energy-efficient, high-performance mobile devices to access information anytime and anywhere;”

this is Prof. Hussain’s key research vision.

Research

KAUST RESEARCHERS FIND ‘EXTRAORDINARY’ TRANSISTOR DESIGN MAY PAVE WAY FOR GRAPHENE-BASED ENERGY-EFFICIENT DEVICES

Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering in the Water Desalination and Reuse Research Center

and the corresponding author of the paper. “There are no other commercial membranes similar to these.

They are really unique.”

Prof. Nunes and her collaborators, including Dr. Klaus-Viktor Peinemann, Professor of Chemical and

Biological Engineering in the Advanced Membranes and Porous Materials Center, and KAUST PhD

students Debora Salomon Marques and Nicolas Moreno Chaparro, examined membranes derived from

block copolymers. Copolymers are polymers that are formed from two types of monomers clustered

together into “blocks” of repeated units.

The process of forming block copolymer membranes can be very complex and ranges from

“simple preparation…by complete solvent evaporation…to multi-step procedures involving etch-

ing, dissolution, and block cleavage,” as the researchers note. However, to ensure block copolymer

membranes are economical to develop, it is necessary to use “methods compatible with large-scale

technical production and manufacture.”

With a simpler procedure called phase inversion, asymmetric porous polystyrene-block-4-vi-

nylpyridine (PS-b-P4VP) membranes have been created. In this procedure, a solution of copolymers

is placed onto a glass plate or non-woven substrate, and the solvent is then partially evaporated

while the plate or substrate is immersed in water. The structural order in the solution is then “repro-

duced in the pore morphology,” the researchers state.

Through the use of small-angle X-ray scattering, the researchers further examined the outcome

of membrane morphology based on order in solutions. This order is influenced by polymer-solvent

thermodynamic interactions and can result in membranes with many pores that have a more uni-

form size. “We wanted to learn in much more detail the process of forming the pores and how you

really get the final structure,” explains Prof. Nunes.

The researchers discovered that solutions with a particular concentration of block copolymer will

have maximum regularity in the pores. However, below this concentration, ordered pores will not

form, and above it the pores elongate into a lamellar form, where they resemble thin, flat plates.

Block copolymers can also assemble into micelles, or aggregates of copolymers, which will assem-

ble themselves into specific forms depending on the copolymer concentration, packing more closely

together at a higher concentration. Micelles commonly occur in a form of a core of PS blocks

encased by a P4VP shell and will form hard or soft spheres depending on their interactions with the

solvent. They can then take on a secondary form of strands of micelles resembling beads on a string.

“The special thing in this paper is that we cover a series of concentrations or compositions of solu-

tion to see what gives a good structure, what doesn’t give a good structure, and, for example, what

happens if we let evaporate part of the solvent after spreading the polymer solution,” Prof. Nunes

says. “The paper is a comprehensive explanation of how the membrane is formed, and integrates

the experimental, modeling, and characterization aspects for the membrane.”

Prof. Nunes and her collaborators were assisted for the research by IBM Almaden Research

Center (US), where some of the modeling work for the paper was conducted, and with HASYLAB at

Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY; Germany), where small-angle X-ray scattering experi-

ments were carried out. “The bulk of the work, however,” notes Prof. Nunes, “was done at KAUST.”

Prof. Nunes believes there are a variety of possible and important applications for the membranes

the paper examines. “The great advantage of membranes with very regular pores is using them to

separate molecules which are very similar in size,” she says. “They could be used in biomedical

applications, such as in protein separation, or in water treatment for pre-treatment before desali-

nation takes place.” In the future, she and her research team hope to upscale production of the

membranes to make them available for a wider variety of uses.

MEMBRANES | Continued from p1

Reprinted (adapted) with permission from Casey Smith et al. ACS Nano. 2013, DOI: 10.1021/nm/400796b. Copyright 2013 American Chemical Society.

Prof. Hussain and colleagues’ transistor device is shown in (a), with graphene fins in the channel region visible. In (b), a scanning electron microgram (SEM) shows a different view of the device, with the inset again showing the graphene fins.

وتقوم هذه الدراسة اليت نشرتها جملة Soft Matter العلمية الرائدة على أغشية كتلة البوليمر املشرتك، وهي عبارة عن مركب بوليمر مكون من وحدات متكررة وخمتلفة تتشكل على امتداد السلسلة اجلزيئية بصورة كتل بعملية معقدة للغاية ترتاوح ما بني التبخر الكامل للمذيب اىل إجراءات تتضمن خطوات حمددة ومتعددة. وختتلف أغشية البوليمر املشرتك كثريًا عن االغشية التجارية احلالية، ويهدف الباحثون إىل ضمان انتاجها بطرق

اقتصادية واسعة النطاق ومتوافقة مع اإلنتاج التقين والصناعي.ومتكن الباحثون عرب استخدام خاصية تشتت الزاوية الصغرية لألشعة السينية من دراسة نتائج تشكل الغشاء باالعتماد على الرتتيب يف املحلول الذي يتأثر بالتفاعالت احلرارية بني البوليمر واملذيبات، وميكن أن يؤدي ذلك اىل ظهور العديد من املسامات املتجانسة يف الغشاء. وتوضح الربوفسور نونيز أهمية ذلك بقوهلا " أردنا أن نعرف تفاصيل أكثر عن عملية تشكل املسام وكيفية الوصول اىل اهليكل النهائي. وقمنا بتغطية سلسلة من السوائل واملحاليل املركزة ملعرفة أي منها يعطينا هيكل جيد. فعلى سبيل املثال، ماذا حيدث إذا تركنا

اجلزء املتبخر من املذيب بعد نشر حملول البوليمر. كما تقدم الورقة شرح شامل لكيفية تشكل الغشاء، ودمج اجلوانب التجريبية ، والنمذجة، والتوصيف."

وقد ساعد باحثون من مركز احباث IBM Almaden يف الواليات املتحدة الربوفسور نونيز وشركائها يف بعض أعمال النمذجة، ومركز احباث HASYLAB يف املانيا يف جتارب تشتت الزاوية الصغرية لألشعة السينية ولكن

اجلزء األكرب من العمل مت يف جامعة امللك عبداهلل للعلوم والتقنية. التطبيقات املمكنة واهلامة لألغشية اليت تبحثها وتعتقد الربوفسور نونيز أن هناك جمموعة متنوعة من الورقة. إذ تستخدم األغشية ذات املسامات املتجانسة لفصل اجلزيئات املتشابهة جدًا يف احلجم. هذه كما ميكن استخدامها يف التطبيقات الطبية احليوية، كما هو احلال يف فصل الربوتني، أو يف معاجلة املياه من عدد لتغطي مستقباًل األغشية هذه إنتاج زيادة يف نونيز الربوفسور فريق ويأمل التحلية. عملية قبل

.االستخدامات املتنوعة

تابع ص1

News

MAKKAH Window, a new start-up company

incubated at the Entrepreneurship Center at

KAUST as a new venture, is on its way. Using

funding it received as a winner of the Fall 2012

Seed Fund Competition, the founders have

turned their idea for the project into a technolog-

ical company. The result: The company released

its first app for android devices, which provides

interactive media and information on the history

of the Holy city of Makkah. The MAC iOS version

of the app will be available in early August and

will be launched with a media event in Makkah

attended by national and international press.

Founder and CEO of the new company

Engr. Abdul-Wahid Al-Zaydi said that Makkah

Window’s app includes an introduction to historic

Makkah sites through the use of interactive maps

as well as panoramic photos. Audio recordings

will also be available in subsequent releases. The

application will be provided in five languages tar-

geting Hajj and Umrah pilgrims: Arabic, English,

Urdu, Turkish and Alandnosé. At present the app

is available in Arabic and English.

Co-founder and CTO Dr. Peter Rautek stated

that a number of smart phone technologies

are included in the app. Augmented Reality,

which allows the user to view 3D models of

ancient sites in Makkah, will be available in

following releases. This is being accomplished

through a collaboration with the KAUST

Geometric Modeling

a n d S c i e n t i fi c

Visualization Center.

Co- founder and

Operations Director

Eng r. Mohammed

Al-Zaydi be l ieves

Makkah Window will

be a useful tool for the

12 million pilgrims

who come to Makkah

each year. Pilgrims

will have a handy aid

at their fingertips, and

by using the app they

will easily learn about the sites and be helped in

finding their way to them.

Makkah Window will present one of its features

in December at Ibtikar, an important exhibition

that specializes in inventions and innovations in

the Middle East. Makkah Window was one of 100

out of 1600 applicants chosen to exhibit.

Budding entrepreneurs may be interested to

know that the fall round of the Seed Fund will

begin August 28. Check the Seed Fund website

for information: seedfund.kaust.edu.sa.

To obtain Makkah Window android version,

download on Google Play by searching for

“Makkah Window” or use the QR at right.

July/August 2013www.kaust.edu.sa 3

MAKKAH WINDOW

The Computational and Experimental Mechanics of Advanced Materials (CEMAM) workshop was

hosted by Dr. Gilles Lubineau, KAUST Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering from the

Physical Sciences and Engineering Division, on the University campus from July 1 – 3.

The workshop focused on the mechanics of solids and structures, with applications to compos-

ite materials. Its main themes included: multiscale experimental and computational approaches for

design; inverse problems for non-destructive control and health monitoring of composite structures;

and durability of materials and structures.

Prof. Lubineau’s co-organizers for the workshop were Dr. Glaucio Paulino from the University

of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (US) and Dr. Marco Alfano from the University of Calabria (Italy).

The professors joined other distinguished faculty members from universities around the world, pre-

senting their research work and participating in panel discussions during the three-day workshop.

Top undergraduate Saudi students from across the Kingdom also attended the event as a “positive

initiative for future student recruitment,” stated Prof. Lubineau.

Prof. Lubineau cited the importance of the “interactive and critical” panel discussions for the

workshop’s participants, noting the discussions “initiated many promising collaborations both

within and outside of the Kingdom for advancing composite application in critical fields such as

energy, composites for civil engineering, and multifunctional materials.”

KAUST’s Composite and Heterogeneous Material Analysis and Simulation Laboratory (COHMAS)

was also spotlighted during the workshop. Created at the University by Prof. Lubineau in 2010,

the COHMAS lab is an integrated environment designed to tackle composite materials-related

challenges. Its multidisciplinary team has experimental, modeling, and computational expertise.

Presenting COHMAS to the visiting scientists was a mechanism to “highlight the quality of our stu-

dents and their training through and for research,” Prof. Lubineau explained.

In summing up the workshop, Prof. Lubineau stated: “Our international forum fostered discussion and

collaboration in the field of advanced materials. This was a very high-quality and high-level event.”

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نافذة مكة

حاجا ومعتمرا. كما سيقدم هلم طريقة سهلة ملعرفة املعلومات القيمة عن املواقع وكيفية الوصول اليها.

وسوف يتم عرض خصائص تطبيق )نافذة مكة( يف شهر ابتكار ديسمرب املقبل وذلك ضمن فعاليات معرض الذي يعد من أهم املعارض املتخصصة يف االخرتاعات مت حيث األوسط الشرق مستوى على واالبتكارات إختيار هذا التطبيق ضمن 100 مشاركة من أصل 1600. وميكن حتميل تطبيق )نافذة مكة( على أجهزة اهلاتف Google Play بالدخول على متجر )ANDROID( بنظامأو استخدام تطبيق قارئ البحث عن )نافذة مكة( مث

.الباركود للرمز املربع

تبدأ شركة جديدة ناشئة أحتضنها مركز ريادة األعمال يف جامعة امللك عبداهلل كمشروع ناشئ يف أعماهلا قريبًا بعد أن قام مؤسسوها باستخدام التمويل الذي فازوا به يف مسابقة صندوق التمويل التأسيسي خلريف عام 2012 أن النتيجة وكانت تقنية. شركة إىل فكرتهم لتحويل اصدرت الشركة اوىل تطبيقاتها ألجهزة اهلواتف الذكية الوسائط التطبيق هذا ويوفر . )ANDROID( بنظام التفاعلية للحصول على معلومات عن تاريخ مدينة مكة للآليفون )IOS( نظام نسخة تدشني وسيتم املكرمة، واآليباد يف حدث إعالمي مبدينة مكة املكرمة يف أوائل شهر أغسطس القادم حبضور الصحافة املحلية والعاملية. وقال مؤسس الشركة اجلديدة ورئيسها التنفيذي املهندس نبذة يعطي مكة( )نافذة تطبيق أن الزيدي عبدالواحد عن املواقع التارخيية يف املدينة املنورة ومكة املكرمة البانورامية. الصور وكذلك التفاعلية اخلرائط باستخدام التسجيالت خاصية القادم اإلصدار يف سيتوفر كما الصوتية ودعم مخس لغات موجهة للحجاج واملعتمرين وهي العربية، واإلجنليزية، واألوردو، والرتكية، واالندونيسية.

من جانبه أوضح الرئيس التنفيذي للتقنية واملؤسس املشارك الدكتور بيرت روتيك أنه مت تضمني عدد من التطبيق هذا يف الذكية للهواتف احلديثة التقنيات للمستخدم تتيح اليت املدجمة احلقيقة تقنية مثل استعراض مناذج ثالثية األبعاد للمواقع األثرية يف مكة املكرمة. وقد كان ملركز النمذجة اهلندسية والتصوير العلمي يف جامعة امللك عبداهلل دور كبري يف اجناز

هذه اخلاصية اليت ستكون متوفرة يف اإلصدار القادم.العمليات عام ومدير املشارك املؤسس يرى بدوره مكة( )نافذة تطبيق أن الزيدي حممد املهندس سيكون أداة مفيدة للحجاج واملعتمرين الذين يفدون إىل مكة املكرمة وتتجاوز أعداداهم سنويا 12 مليون

CEMAM WORKSHOP HIGHLIGHTS INTERNATIONAL EXPERTISE IN ADVANCED MATERIALS

SCHOOL’S out! School’s out! This happy chant of children has been the start of a dilemma for par-

ents for generations. What kinds of activities can they find for their children during the summer

months that are fun, stimulating, and a learning experience? Recreation Services helped solve the

problem with its Journey Around the World Summer Camp for children 4-12 years old.

The camp is divided into two sections, 4 to 7–year-olds and 8 to 12-year-olds, and is held week

days from June 8 until August 21. Each week the activities revolve around a different part of the

world. Activities include arts and crafts, games, sports, and the language and culture of the high-

lighted area. For example, while focusing on East Asia, children learned elementary Tai Chi, kite

flying, Sakura Tree making, and origami. When North America was highlighted, they learned Hip

Hop Dance, Native American crafts, and Texas Horseshoes. One week they went to the Fakieh

Aquarium in Jeddah and saw a dolphin and seal show.

Older children have had the opportunity to be part of a Youth Development Program as a Harbor

Master’s Assistant or an Assistant Director of Golf for a week. As a Harbor Master’s Assistant, par-

ticipants learn about navigation and get an introduction to marine charts, learn how to prepare

a boat for sea, and are introduced to control room operations and weather forecasting. As a Golf

Director’s Assistant, they learn about landscaping, greens maintenance, and the irrigation system.

They also learn about academy teaching, the life of a golf pro, golf operations, and the retail shop.

The fact that the programs were successful is evident from the interest and smiles on the chil-

dren’s faces.

July/August 2013 Community4 The Beacon

Dr. Belkacem Said-Houari, a postdoctoral fellow in the Computer,

Electrical, and Mathematical Sciences and Engineering (CEMSE)

Division, is the recipient of the Abdul Hameed Shoman Award for

Young Arab Researchers in Mathematics. The prestigious award, named

for the founder of the Arab Bank, was bestowed for Dr. Said-Houari’s

“extensive and distinguished scientific work published in renowned international scien-

tific magazines (20 papers since his arrival at KAUST in January 2011) and in view to the

difficulty of his field of specialty.” Dr. Said-Houari was also cited for “his leadership and

independent merits and his use of comprehensive methodologies and tools used in his

research.”

The official award ceremony will take place in October 2013 in Amman, Jordan.

Amal Aboulhasan, a Computer Science PhD student from Egypt, and Sawsan Alhalawani, a

PhD student from Jordan in the Geometric Modeling and Scientific Visualization Center, have

won the highly competitive Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship Award. Aboulhasan’s

research is in visualization under the supervision of Prof. Markus Hadwiger. She is proposing

a visual paradigm for analyzing the molecular and nanoscale data of organic photovoltaic

solar cells. Alhalawani is working with Prof. Niloy Mitra and is interested in image process-

ing and geometric modeling. Her current research focuses on analyzing and understanding

urban data to facilitate smart manipulation and design possibilities.

The award supports women in technology, encouraging them to excel in computing and technol-

ogy to become active role models and leaders in the field. Scholarship recipients will each receive

a financial award for the academic year and will be invited to attend a retreat at Google. KAUST

was honored to be one of only five universities to have two award recipients. There was only one

university with more than two.

DR. BELKACEM SAID- HOUARI AWARDED ABDUL HAMEED SHOMAN AWARD FOR YOUNG ARAB RESEARCHERS

AMAL ABOULHASAN AND SAWSAN ALHALAWANI NAMED ANITA BORG MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP AWARD WINNERS

Dr. Belkacem Said-Houari

Professor Yves Gnanou receives the Chevalier medal of the French national Legion d’honneur.

PROFESSOR Yves Gnanou (Dean, PSE) was awarded the medal of the French Ordre national de

la Légion d’honneur at the rank of Chevalier at a ceremony on June 27, 2013. This prestigious

award honors exceptional individuals who have made major contributions to France and French

culture. The order, created by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802, is the highest distinction awarded

in France and is composed of five classes: Chevalier, Officier, Commandeur, Grand Officier, and

Grand Croix. Prof. Gnanou was recognized for his 29 years of service as an outstanding uni-

versity professor, including serving with distinction as Vice President of Academic Affairs and

Research at École Polytechnique in Paris.

PROF. YVES GNANOU AWARDED RANK OF CHEVALIER DE LA LEGION D’HONNEUR

FUN AND GAMES, LEARNING AND GROWING WITH SUMMER RECREATION ACTIVITIES

The four to seven-year-old group demonstrated their martial arts.

Learning to use chopsticks One more push!