São Paulo – Khalifa University, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, is looking for professors in other countries, including Brazil. The American Tod Laursen, president of the institution, visited São Paulo last week to attend the 10th World Congress on Computational Mechanics, and one of his goals was to look for professors.
To him, the congress was a good opportunity to seek educators because it is “multidisciplinary,” congregating engineers, mathematicians, and computer science professionals from all over the world.
The university had its own booth at the event. “It is important for a new university to show people that it exists, and to show them what we want to do,” Laursen told ANBA.
The institution was established five years ago by the government of Abu Dhabi to provide teaching and research in engineering, medicine, finance and administration.
According to Laursen, Khalifa is part of a government strategy to diversify the emirate’s economy away from oil, and one of the means is through training professionals locally. The president informed that 75% of students are native, whereas 80% of the Abu Dhabi population is comprised of expatriates.
Laursen claimed that “there is no question” that there are teachers in Brazil who are qualified to teach at the university. “[The country] is a market with great potential,” he said. One of the basic requirements, however, is good English, because the courses are taught in the language.
He added that he is seeking faculty members who are also researchers. “We want people with a history of [scientific] publications and who are interested in teaching, people who work on both fronts,” he said.
Another desirable trait is for candidates to be “enterprising.” “They must thrive in the challenge, the adventure of creating a university,” said Laursen. Because the institution is brand new, there are “many things which are not in place yet.”
At the congress, the academician also organized a congress on “contact computational mechanics.” A mechanical engineer, professor and researcher, he specializes in computational mechanics.
Contact
Email: tod.laursen@kustar.ac.ae
Website: www.kustar.ac.ae
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum