The new “Noble laureates at King Saud University Program” has hosted 10 Nobel laureates since it started last year boosting the academic standing of the university worldwide, said Dr. Khaled Al-Nuwaib, supervisor of the program. The university discussed with the top-notch visiting professors means of cooperation in different aspects including joint research, teaching, conferences, and seminars, he said. This step comes as part of a makeover the university has taken to climb the list of world university ranking. In less than a year, the ranking of the university jumped phenomenally from nearly 3,000 to a spectacular 380, according to the rating of the famous Spanish Webometrics Ranking of World Universities. The visiting Nobel laureates were selected from different disciplines such as medicine, economics, physics, and chemistry. The university has limited its selection of Nobel winners to those who won the prizes over the last 18 years. “About 40 percent of the Nobel Prize winners who were invited have accepted to be part of King Saud University,” Al-Nuwaib said. The list of the visiting laureates includes Muhammad Yunus, winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize for peace, Theodore Hansch, winner of the 2005 Nobel Prize in physics, Roy Glauber, co-winner of the 2005 Nobel Prize in physics, Finn Kydland, winner of the 2005 Nobel Prize in economics, Richard Schrock, winner of the 2005 Nobel Prize in chemistry, David Gross, winner of the 2004 Nobel Prize in physics, Carl Wieman, winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics, James Heckman, winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Economics, Ahmad Zewail, winner of the 1999 Nobel Prize in chemistry, and Louis Ignarro, winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize in medicine. – Okaz __
