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[sciencephd]

In biology, biochemistry, and chemistry, I would say that at this point this list of faculty is not particularly impressive.

[martins]

There seem to be a lot of people making 'ridiculous' decisions...take a look at  

http://www.kaust.edu.sa/about/faculty.aspx

before you jump to conclusions.  You'll see that people have left positions at places like Stanford, Columbia, MIT, etc. to come to KAUST.

Okay I will concede your point if you can give just one example of a professor, who resigned from a tenured job at a top uni, and joined KAUST. I think all of them are taking a short stint at KAUST, while on leave from their university for raking in the cash.

[arjen_rienks]

For all postdocs coming to KAUST: think twice.

I made that decision only to find myself at an institution with NO academic tradition, where the academic partners like Cambridge, Imperial College and UCSD are backing out already.
Living in a house for which the term "barely finished" would be a compliment, with rats  running in the kitchen living on-campus is not exactly what was promised.

About Shaheen (quoting from mathdoc, who seemed to be sponsored by KAUST):
>It's the 3rd fastest academic supercomputer in the world (14th fastest overall; just check out top500.org ).

Except that it is turned off (appearently indefinitely) now because severe airco problems. M$ of damages already.
The climate here is oppressive: very hot and being close to the sea, very high (90 %) of salt humidity. Kills equipment in no time.

>Why are people coming to KAUST?  Clearly one reason is the unparalleled research funding and unmatched >research facilities. 
With empty rooms and labs everywhere, a better name would be "Neutron bomb" university.


>If you are concerned about 'the regime' in Saudi Arabia, you should be aware that KAUST is a private >university funded by a privately held endowment.  You can see the board of trustees here: >http://www.kaust.edu.sa/about/board-trustees.aspx
>Apparently people like the presidents of Princeton, Cornell, NIH, and CERN think KAUST is serious about >research.

Don't forget that you are in a strict Muslim country with very strict rules about what you can/cannot do. You wife will be severely restricted when she gets off-campus. She cannot even drive a car. Nothing to do for miles around.
If you like to live in a golden cage and completely ignoring the poor people in the next village, welcome to KAUST.

Arjen

[martins]

Dear Arjen,
What you have described is what you should have expected even before starting as a postdoc. I am surprised that you were not prepared for this when you signed up as a postdoc. In my opinion everyone there is strongly motivated by the money. I saw postdoc ads that advertised a salary of 100k USD, tax free+housing. Such a figure is only being offered so that some may overlook the other horrible conditions in there, as well as being a career dead end.