Invited Paper - American Influence on Engineering Education in the Middle East

Russel Jones is a consultant, working through World Expertise LLC. Until recently he was senior Advisor at the Khalifa University of Science, Technology and Research, a new institution in Abu Dhabi, UAE. KUSTAR offers undergraduate and graduate programs in engineering and science. Prior to that, he served as Founding President of the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology in Abu Dhabi, UAE – a new university dedicated to graduate education and research, focused on alternative energy. He serves as President of World Expertise LLC, a consulting company offering services to a select clientele. His primary interests are international higher education and human capacity building through engineering education. Dr. Jones received his education at Carnegie Institute of Technology, earning degrees in civil engineering and materials science. Prior to returning to Carnegie for his doctoral study, he worked as a practicing civil engineer. He has spent much of his career as an educator, starting with engineering education and broadening to higher education as a whole. After completing his doctoral degree in 1963, he taught for eight years on the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He then served in a succession of administrative posts in higher education, for several years each: Chairman of Civil Engineering at Ohio State University, Dean of Engineering at the University of Massachusetts, Academic Vice President at Boston University, and President and University Research Professor at the University of Delaware. Prior to forming World Expertise L.L.C. as president, he served as Executive Director of the National Society of Professional Engineers, an individual member society for the licensed professional engineer with offices in Alexandria, Virginia. Long active in the engineering profession, Dr. Jones has served as a national officer of the American Society of Civil Engineers, has chaired major task committees for such groups as the American Society for Engineering Education and the American Association of Engineering Societies, and has served as President of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology. He was General Chairman for UPADI ’90, the biannual meeting of the Pan American Association of Engineering Societies, and has served as Co-chair of the UNESCO Steering Committee on Human Resources Development for Technical Industry Stimulation. Prior to becoming its Executive Director, Dr. Jones was active as a volunteer in the National Society of Professional Engineers, and served as President of its Delaware Engineering Society. He has been an elected member of the Council of the Delaware Association of Professional Engineers, the state PE registration board. He is licensed as a Professional Engineer in several states, and as a Euro Engineer with FEANI. Dr. Jones has been honored with the Collingwood Prize and the Friedman Professional Recognition Award of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and was elected to Distinguished Member status in ASCE in 2004. He has been awarded the International Medal for Distinguished Contributions to Engineering Education of the Australasian Association for Engineering Education, and has been honored as the Outstanding Delaware Engineer of the Year for 1994. Dr. Jones has been honored as the recipient of the 2005 Chair’s Award of the American Association of Engineering Societies. In 2012, Dr. Jones was recognized with a distinguished alumni award from his alma mater, Carnegie Mellon University. He is a Fellow of the American Society for Engineering Education, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Institution of Engineers of Ireland, the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, the National Society of Professional Engineers, and the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufacture and Commerce. He was a Senior Fellow of the American Council on Education in 1988-90. Recently, Dr. Jones has been most active in consulting on the enhancement of engineering education in developing countries, and in chairing volunteer activities in that area. He was President of the World Federation of Engineering Organizations Committee on Capacity Building, establishing programs to build technical capacity in developing countries in order to stimulate economic development there. He also has recently served as Chair of the International Division of the American Society for Engineering Education, and as President of the Committee on Engineering Education of the Pan American Association of Engineering Societies. Dr. Jones also recently served as a member of the United States National Commission on UNESCO, providing guidance to the US State Department and to its Ambassador to UNESCO.