Gulf Crisis Rocks Worldwide Science Community

Iraqi invasion interrupts many international projects; Kuwaiti researchers fear warfare gas devasted their life's work As the world watches with alarm the unfolding crisis in the Middle East, the international science community is assessing losses resulting from the August 2 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. The blow to Kuwaiti science is disastrous, and the damage of the attack extends beyond the borders of the small Persian Gulf country. Future international collaborations in the Middle East may be in jeopardy. The exact extent of the destruction to Kuwait's scientific research as a result of the invasion is unknown. People who fled the Kuwait Institute of Scientific Research (KISR), the country's major research facility, report that Iraqi soldiers looted many of the scientific instruments and all the computers. But scientists are also worried about the fate of files, books, computer tapes, incubators, and freezers that still may be there. A number of Kuwaiti scientists who are now stranded in the United States because they were on vacation or on sabbatical before the invasion are distraught about family and friends back home and also fear that research left behind is irreparably damaged. "We are hopeful that the situation is resolved quickly and Kuwait is returned as a free country," says nuclear physicist Adnan Shihab-Eldin director of KISR from 1976 to 1986, who is now on sabbatical at the University of California, Berkeley. "As to the institute, we can replace material losses, but it took some time to get us to the level of scientific sophistication in manpower, education, and technology we had achieved." Before the invasion, Kuwaiti scientific research and related activities took place principally in three institutions: Kuwait Institute for Scientific Resarch (KISR), Kuwait University, and the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Science (KFAS). The Japanese division of ARAMCO, the Arab American Oil Co., set up KISR in 1975. Funding was then taken over by the Kuwait government. The majority of the 50 or so scientific staff are Western-trained Arabs. "Most of the research is applied," says Richard Stevens, a consultant to Kuwait University's Washington, D.C., office, "with an emphasis on petroleum engineering, solar energy, desertification, fisheries, pollution, and urban planning." Kuwait University, founded in 1962, was the only educational facility of higher learning in Kuwait. "The relationship of KISR to Kuwait University is cordial but not close," says Richard Wilson, a physicist at Harvard University who spent many years in the Mideast. "In practice, in fields such as fluorescence or solid state physics, they think of themselves as competitors, not collaborators." KFAS is an organization akin to the American Association for the Advancement of Science. It is a support facility for Kuwaitis seeking funds to do research. --R.E. Before the invasion, the reputation of Kuwaiti science in the international scientific community was beginning to improve. The first graduate programs in physics, math, chemistry, and some medical disciplines were scheduled to start in the 1991-1992 academic year at Kuwait University. Kuwait was losing its status as a Third World country, scientifically speaking, as years of investment in its academic future were about to pay off. A critical mass of Ph.D.'s trained abroad, mostly in the U.S., costing the Kuwait government some $3 million annually, had returned home with enough expertise to start the graduate programs. In view of its size, Kuwait's number of scientific publications, though small, was impressive. Although populated by much fewer than half the number of scientists than Saudi Arabia, Kuwait published 1,500 articles in journals of international standing between 1987 and June 1990--about half as many as Saudi Arabia. The U.S.'s interest in entering a research agreement with Kuwait on an equal-funding footing illustrates the progress of the Gulf country's growth in science. This past July, Kuwaiti ministers and U.S. State Department officials held informal discussions about entering into a bilateral scientific and technology agreement to formally promote scientific cooperation between the countries. American scientists were very interested in exploring collaborations of mutual interest with the Kuwaitis and the Middle East in general, according to Sandy Fairfield, program officer for the Middle East of the Fogarty International Center in the National Institutes of Health. "Since they [the Kuwaitis] have a high standard of living, they suffer from diseases that we in the West are also interested in, like cardiovascular blockage and tobacco-related illness," she says. "Middle Eastern countries can also be seen as models to assess the effects of global warming on health. But it's all been nipped in the bud." International scientific business collaborations in the early stages of development have also been terminated. One joint venture- -among the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR), Environmental Research Laboratories (ERL) in Tuscon, Ariz., and Halophyte Enterprises of Chicago--involved growing halophyte plants in Kuwait for fodder and oil seed. Biologist James Riley, a senior research scientist at ERL doubts that the plants he helped cultivate in Kuwait for the past two years are still alive. "These plants needed to be irrigated with seawater daily," he says. "The farm was 65 kilometers outside of Kuwait City. We had two Egyptian workers. It's highly unlikely that they would be caring for the plants when they are thinking about their own survival." Riley, who was supposed to go back to Kuwait five or six times in 1991, cannot return unless circumstances change. Another international joint venture, between KISR and Petrogen, an Arlington Heights, Ill., biotechnology company, produced six tons of carefully fermented microbial oil sludge cleanser that may still be sitting in vats at KISR. Whether Iraqi soldiers destroyed the material is unknown. The detergent, a biosurfactant produced by bacterial culture, was capable of cleaning sludge, recovering oil, and reducing the volume of disposed material at presumably half the cost of conventional cleansers. Now Don Moore, Petrogen's president, when asked about the project, says resignedly, "There is nothing we can do." Kuwaiti students, faculty, and researchers in the U.S. express similar despair at the state of suspended animation they find themselves in. Although the Kuwait govern- ment-in-exile is continuing to pay for tuition and board of students, it isn't supporting senior scientists who are here. A Kuwaiti engineering student getting his Ph.D. in the U.S., who fears repercussions against his family back home and would speak only with the assurance of anonymity, says, "I get so frustrated, I don't know what to do. We thought of Iraqis as our brothers." Another Kuwaiti scientist was so depressed he could barely speak and wondered how he was going to get a job. Others are more optimistic. Semira Omar worked for KISR for 17 years, and had just finished her Ph.D. in environmental science at the University of California, Berkeley, when the invasion occurred. She wants to go back and rebuild her society. "I'd go even if the Iraqis are still there,'' she says. Omar established the first national park in Kuwait, which she fears has been trampled by Iraqi troops. "My concern as an environmentalist is that any disturbance could cause a local dust storm and lead to desertification of this region," says Omar. "Kuwait's plan to use date palms as part of a greening program for its deserts and cities is also on hold as a result of the invasion." She adds ironically, "In fact, Iraq was going to supply us with water for some of the project." Omar is concerned that an American consultant on the greening project is one of thousands being held by Iraq. Kuwaiti science is not the only victim of the current stalemate between the U.S. and its allies and Iraq. Officials in Washington who asked not to be identified say there may be trouble ahead for a $7.4 million program of the Agency of International Development in Egypt that involves the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control, and the Food and Drug Administration. The NIH had the largest part of the collaboration with plans to spend $4.5 million on eight projects dealing with cancer, rheumatoid heart disease, parasitic disease, hypertension, arbovirus, medical genetics, acute respiratory infections, and medical equipment and repair. Egypt was going to contribute the equivalent of $2.5 million as its portion. However, a Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission envoys and American government officials involved in Saudi Arabia-U.S. projects say that "business is usual" for scientists going to Saudi Arabia. Recently the Saudi Arabian-United States Joint Commission on Economic Cooperation (JCEO) extended its relationship another five years. During the first 15 years of the accord, the Saudis paid the U.S. $1.5 billion to help develop the Saudi science infrastructure. Many government and private agencies participate in the JCEO. One, the National Science Foundation (NSF), provides the Saudis access to American computer data- bases, training for Saudi scientists in the U.S., and equipment purchasing assistance for a Saudi observatory. But murmurs from American scientists with colleagues abroad say that the scientific landscape in Saudi Arabia may be shifting as a result of the Gulf crisis. Foreigners want to leave. Perhaps as many as 100 staff members of the King Faisal Hospital, which is near the capital, Riyadh, are trying to return to their native countries. And a bilateral science and technology agreement between the Saudis and the Americans is on hold. Edward Murdy, program director for the JCEO at the NSF wryly says, "U.S. ambassadors and Saudi ministers are now otherwise engaged."

Gulf Crisis Rocks Worldwide Science Community

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