KSU is Stepping Ahead to be Leading University: Nobel Laureate

I know little about education in Saudi Arabia. Yet, I have got a strong impression about education during my brief stay. I see the leadership of King Saud University (KSU) is stepping ahead to be a pioneering university, developing the university education. I expect it will be a research leading center, says David Gross, a Nobel laureate in physics 2004, in an interview with Resalah newspaper.

            Resalah: Do you think that KSU has become a leading university?

            Gross: No, Not yet. Many things should be done to reach this goal.

            Resalah: What’s your comment on the university support to scientific research and the international partnerships it builds up?

Gross: I think the university is going ahead in supporting the scientific research. I know that it has adopted aspiring development plans. It is going fast on the right path.

Resalah: Talk about your lecture today on physic.

Gross: Physics has been developing. 25 years ago, we knew nothing about universe origination. This means the more we learn, the more we find out that we are ignorant, for the more we learn the more, the more we realize the data we know nothing about. I along with Nobel laureates made 25 questions that might make physics go advanced. Yet, we might not be able to answer these questions.

Resalah: What is your advice to the Saudi students?

Gross:  They should do what they like; should have big dreams; should work hard; and should study hard.

Resalah: A word to the newspaper?

Gross: Good luck!

Profile:

 David was born in Washington, D.C., on February 19, 1941, the eldest of four sons. His father, Bertram Meyer, had attended the University of Pennsylvania in English major.

From the age of 13, he was attracted to physics and mathematics. His interest in these subjects derived mostly from popular science books that he read avidly. Early on he was fascinated by theoretical physics and determined to become a theoretical physicist. He had no real idea what that meant, but it seemed incredibly exciting to spend one's life attempting to find the secrets of the universe, using one's mind.

Determined to become a theoretical physicist, upon graduating from High School, he majored in physics and mathematics in the university.  The physics education was reasonably good, and the mathematics education was excellent. After receiving a B.Sc., he applied to graduate schools in the United States.

Concluding his graduate studies in 1966, he was nominated to the Harvard Society of Fellows, a wonderful institution that appointed eight fellows each year in many different fields.

In the early 1980's, he began to work on string theory again and in 1984, together with a group of younger collaborators, discovered the heterotic string, which at the time seemed to offer the possibility of explaining the Standard Model from string theory.