PRESIDENT TILGHMAN has agreed to serve as a founding trustee for a new research university planned to open next fall in Saudi Arabia. The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology is being built on the Red Sea north of Jeddah, the country’s second-largest city, and will be governed by an independent 20-member board of trustees. Tilghman said she wants to encourage expanded opportunities for women in a region “where historically they have not been available.” All classes will be in English, and Saudi officials have promised academic freedom. “It was critically important to me that KAUST is committed to providing a Western-style education, to attracting students and faculty from around the world and from all ethnic and religious backgrounds, and to educating men and women from different religious traditions together,” Tilghman said, promising to hold the university to its goals. Among the other trustees is former Cornell president Frank H.T. Rhodes.

BP has renewed its funding of the CARBON MITIGATION INITIATIVE, a research partnership in which Princeton faculty, students, and staff have explored climate science and alternative energy for the last eight years. The project will receive at least $2 million per year from 2011 through 2015. BP’s original $15 million, 10-year grant in 2000 was the largest corporate grant in University history. The project, led by professors Stephen Pacala and Robert Socolow, involves more than 10 academic departments and research units. Ford Motor Co., CMI’s other founding sponsor, remains active in the project, Socolow said.