“International collaboration is the fourth pillar of our vision and we
take it very seriously,” Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) Vice Chancellor
Dr. Ali Saud Al-Bemani told AIT officials on his maiden visit to the
campus on 28 August 2014.
Accompanied by Professor Joydeep Dutta, Chair in Nanotechnology, Water
Research Center, SQU, the vice chancellor said he would be happy to see
AIT become the Omani university’s first partner university in East Asia
and Southeast Asia, following earlier tie ups with North American and
European universities. SQU is a growing university with a current
enrollment of approximately 18,000 students, he said.
The two officials were welcomed to AIT by President Worsak
Kanok-Nukulchai, who led exploratory discussions also involving senior
AIT officials on developing a partnership involving student and faculty
exchanges.
“When SQU partners with AIT you partner with the whole region,” said
President Worsak, explaining the institute's regional mandate.
Reminding all of the contributions to AIT made by Prof. Dutta, a
former AIT faculty member at the School of Engineering and Technology
and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Prof. Worsak suggested
establishing scientific partnership focused on nanotechnology, as a
first step.
Vice Chancellor Dr. Ali Saud Al-Bemani, agreed, stressing his belief
in “bottom-up” and “outcome measured" partnerships which stress
specific, measurable results and time-frames for academic collaboration
and joint activities. He recommended that an official Letter of Intent
or Letter of Understanding could serve as the basis for establishing
partnership between SQU and AIT. "I see nanotechnology as the first
seed that we can plant for partnership," he said.
Later, Dr. Ali Saud Al-Bemani toured the laboratories at the AIT
Center of Excellence in Nanotechnology (COEN) along with its director
Prof. Louis Hornyak and Prof. Dutta. The facility was established by
Prof. Dutta during his earlier tenure at AIT.
From left: Dr. Louis Gabor Hornyak, Dr. Ali
Saud Al-Bemani and Prof. Joydeep Dutta.