While the Persian Gulf is best known for its oil industry, if Fred Moavenzadeh is successful, the region will also someday be known for exporting new ideas to revolutionize the way the world’s population fuels its cars and heats its homes.
Mr. Moavenzadeh is the new president of Abu Dhabi’s Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, the first graduate-level university devoted to fostering renewable, clean, and sustainable alternative sources of energy. He is taking a leave from his position as director of the technology and development program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which is being paid $40-million by the emirate to oversee the development of the energy-research university since its establishment three years ago.
The Masdar Institute opened last fall for classes with a few dozen graduate students and faculty members. Eventually, it hopes to enroll 800 master’s and Ph.D. students on a campus that is still under construction at Masdar City, a clean-energy community on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi that aims to be carbon neutral.
In his new position, which he started last month, Mr. Moavenzadeh says he is excited to be at an institution with an ambitious goal to solve global problems.
“For the first time in this part of the world, a small emirate like Abu Dhabi has stood up and said, ‘I want to be part of the solution, and I have a comprehensive plan to do it,’” he says.
But since it opened, Masdar has also garnered a reputation for having relationships with top administrators go sour. Days after the announcement that Mr. Moavenzadeh would become the institute’s president, Masdar’s provost, John Perkins, resigned his post for “personal reasons,” according to the university. Mr. Perkins joined Masdar last year, after leaving his position as vice president and dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences at the University of Manchester in Britain.
Just weeks before Mr. Perkins’s departure, Tariq Ali, Masdar’s head of research and a former director of the Energy and Environment Office at London’s Imperial College, resigned. In 2008, Masdar parted ways with Russel C. Jones, its founding president.
Neither Mr. Ali nor Mr. Perkins were available for comment.
Despite these relatively rapid departures, Mr. Moavenzadeh said Masdar is “a strong institution, and it’s getting stronger every day.”
“I want to emphasize that I am not moving here to clean up a mess,” he said. “I am absolutely thrilled to be here.”
In a telephone interview with The Chronicle last month, Mr. Moavenzadeh spoke about his new role and his priorities for Masdar.
Q: In your role at MIT, you’ve helped establish universities all over the world, but this is the first time you’ve actually assumed a role at one of those institutions. Is it a big shift?
A: Yes, absolutely, this is new for me. And I’ve been very straightforward: I really feel that there is a certain excitement here with regard to what I call Abu Dhabi becoming a part of the solution to global issues, rather than a part of the problem.
That’s exciting, and that’s how I would like to see the Masdar Institute contribute. An important element of the strategy is creating the sort of human capital it needs to become part of the solution. I believe that its human-capital contribution is much more important than its financial contribution.
I felt I have to be a part of that endeavor, and MIT is very happy to take a role contributing to this noble cause—bearing in mind that this noble cause has its roots here.
Q: In the fall, you will welcome your second batch of graduate students, and you’ve said that you want to focus on developing research opportunities at the institute. Can you shed some light on your plans?
A: We are in negotiations with Boeing and Honeywell and Etihad [Airways] about the development of biofuel kerosene for aircraft. And that contract is in the final stage of being signed. That creates a good science research project.
There is a similar thing going on with Masdar City in helping to develop the “smart” city. And we have something similar to that around establishing a center for transport and logistics where we work with the port authorities and airports to develop logistics systems for them.
And there are a few others. We have a big one that was just signed with the Advanced Technology Investment Company of Abu Dhabi, which is $10-million. They are developing a laboratory at Masdar Institute for microelectronics. They provided the funding for buying the equipment, and we are now negotiating with the funding for doing the research.
Q: You have emphasized the need to develop MIT-style, contract-driven research at the Masdar Institute. Can you explain your approach?
A: We have to promote the interests of the faculty with industry and with government so that they support faculty research. It not only generates revenue—that’s important—but it’s not the sole reason. What is important is that contracts make faculty see how to structure their research so that it will be of interest to the needs of a local ministry, or company, or international groups. And that will not only get students involved with the interests of the broader issues facing this society, but they are research issues for which somebody is willing to pay.
Once somebody has provided funding, then the faculty has to commit itself to the final scope of the work in a way that is doable. And they have to identify what are the deliverables so it creates a very different relationship. It also makes it much easier for students to see the relevance of their work.
