According to Agence France Presse, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology has had a controversial moment, two weeks after itsinauguration. King Abdullah fired a hardline cleric from the Council of Senior Ulema for criticizing the University's policy of mixing genders.

Last week, Sheikh Sa'ad al-Shethry was removed from the Council, which dictates religious policy in Saudi Arabia, a week after he decried gender mixing as "evil," and "a great sin" in a television interview.

Two Cornell professors won a $25 million grant for a new interdisciplinary scientific research and education center at Cornell, announced the Global Research Partnership of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology yesterday.

The KAUST-Cornell University Center for Research and Education will be co-led by Prof. Emmanuel Giannelis, materials science and engineering, and Prof. Lynden Archer, chemical and biolomolecular engineering, the Marjorie L. Hart Professor of Engineering. Giannelis and Archer’s proposal is selected as one of the four winners among the 41 initial applications submitted in late 2007.