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Research Institute Centers

The NYUAD Research Institute is a world-class center of cutting-edge and innovative research, scholarship, and cultural activity. It supports centers that address questions of global significance and local relevance and allows leading faculty members from across the disciplines to carry out creative scholarship and high-level research on a range of complex issues with depth, scale, and longevity that otherwise would not be possible.
Centers

From genomics and climate science to the humanities and Arabic literature, Research Institute centers make significant contributions to scholarship, scientific understanding, and artistic creativity. Centers strengthen cross-disciplinary engagement and innovation among the faculty, build critical mass in infrastructure and research talent at NYUAD, and have helped make the university a magnet for outstanding faculty, scholars, students, and international collaborations.

al Mawrid Arab Center for the Study of Art

al Mawrid is a research center and archive dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of the visual arts of the Arab world. Through a range of activities that include fellowships, research projects, conferences and colloquia, as well as the construction of a unique open-access archive, al Mawrid aims to be a major resource for scholars, independent researchers, and for educational and art institutions.

Principal Investigator:  Salwa Mikdadi
Co-Principal Investigators: Shamoon Zamir May Al-Dabbagh
Program: Art and Art History Social Research and Public Policy
Division: Arts and Humanities and Social Science

Arabian Center for Climate and Environmental ScienceS (ACCESS)

An interdisciplinary, UAE-based research center on climate change and the environment.  ACCESS is developing an environmental monitoring network and innovative instruments based on intelligent drones to realize it.  ACCESS is developing regional climate and environmental models to help understand the observed data and make future scenarios.

Principal Investigator:  Francesco Paparella
Co-PIs: Shady Amin, John Burt, Monica Menendez, Olivier Pauluis, Farah Shamout, Shafer Smith, Antonios Tzes
Program: Civil Engineering Electrical Engineering Biology Mathematics
Division: Engineering Science

Center for Astro, Particle, and Planetary Physics

An alliance of faculty and scholars actively involved in research in astronomy, astrophysics, planetary, and particle physics. Their goal is to work toward providing answers to a series of fundamental questions related to the composition and evolution of our universe.

Principal Investigator: Andrea Macciò
Co-PIs: Francesco Arneodo, David Russell, Ian Dobbs-Dixon
Program: Physics
Division: Science

Center for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics

CAIR advances fundamental research and applications in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics. Research faculty from NYUAD and NYUNY collaborate in five projects spanning areas from the collaboration of multi-agent systems, perception and navigation, deep learning, brain-robot interface, and other applications.

Principal Investigator:  Anthony Tzes
Co-Principal Investigators: Farshad Khorrami, Yann LeCun
Program: Electrical Engineering Computer Engineering Computer Science Psychology
Division: Engineer,  Science

Center for Behavioral Institutional Design (C-BID)

The Center for Behavioral Institutional Design (C-BID) at NYU Abu Dhabi will be a globally recognized research hub that will explore in depth the origins of human behavioral diversity, undertake the development of empirically-informed theories of human behavior, lead their application to public policy, and build capacity in behavioral social science in the public and private sector, locally and internationally.

Principal Investigator: Nikos Nikiforakis, John Wooders 
Co-PIs: Olivier Bochet, Ernesto Reuben
Program: Economics, Social Research and Public Policy
Division: Science, Social Science

Center for Cyber Security

A world class cyber security center partnering with key local universities, industry, and government agencies to facilitate cyber security research, education, and practice in the UAE and GCC region.

Principal Investigator: Ozgur Sinanoglu
Co-PIs: Ramesh Karri, Nasir Memon, Hoda Alkhzaimi, Michail Maniatakos, Christina Pöpper
Program: Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Mathematics, Electrical Engineering, General Engineering, Social Research and Public Policy
Division: Engineering, Science, Social Science

Center for Genomics and Systems Biology

Providing a nexus for cutting-edge life sciences research in the UAE, with world-class facilities and resources to promote innovative advances in genomics and systems biology.

Principal Investigator: Claude Desplan; Kris Gunsalus
Co-PIs: Michael Purugganan, Kourosh Salehi-Ashtiani
Program: Biology
Division: Science

Center for Global Sea Level Change

The Center for Sea Level Change combines observations and computer models to understand past, and project future, sea-level rise.

Principal Investigator: David Holland
Program: Natural Science, The Environment
Division: Science

Center for Interacting Urban Networks (CITIES)

Developing fundamental research that can be translated into pragmatic ideas for increasing the livability of our cities. The rapid rate of urbanization is putting strain on urban systems and posing new challenges across a multitude of sectors.

Principal Investigator: Monica Menendez
Co-PIs: Azza Abouzied, Kinga Makovi, Saif Jabari
Program: Civil Engineering, General Engineering, Computer Science, Social Research and Public Policy, Economics, Film and New Media
Division: Engineering, Science, Social Science

Center for Prototype Climate Modeling

Bridging the gap between climate theory, modeling, and observation, with the goal of better understanding fundamental processes in the earth system, and improving our ability to predict future climate.

Principal Investigator: Olivier Pauluis
Co-PIs: Shafer Smith, Francesco Paparella
Program: Mathematics, Natural Science
Division: Science

Center for Quantum and Topological Systems

A nucleation point for cross-disciplinary expertise in theory and application of quantum and topological systems, with an emphasis towards the unifying goal of robust quantum computation – combining all questions from theoretical foundations (quantum error-correction) over hardware (topological quantum materials and novel quantum chips), architecture (parameterized quantum circuits), and software (quantum programming languages and hardware-aware software optimization) to applications (quantum machine learning and quantum cryptography).

Principal Investigator:  Hisham Sati
Co-PIs: Muhammad Shafique, Saurabh Ray, Farah Shamout, Tuka Alhanai, Tim Byrnes, Pilkyung Moon
Program: Mathematics, Computer Science, Physics, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering
Division: Engineering, Science

Center for Smart Engineering Materials

The NYUAD Center for Smart Engineering Materials (NYUAD-CSEM) is an institutional research platform for research and development of smart materials and technologies that are relevant to the key sectors of the UAE's economy. By using an integrated, multidisciplinary, and synergistic approach to basic research, characterization, optimization, and implementation, NYUAD-CSEM aims to provide smart and sustainable solutions for sensing and diagnostics in the oil/gas and civil engineering sectors.

Principal Investigator: Olivier Pauluis
Co-PIs: Shafer Smith, Francesco Paparella
Program: Chemistry, General Engineering, Civil Engineering Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering
Division: Engineering, Science

Center for Space Science

Focused on the study of the the internal structure of the Sun and stars through stellar seismology and modeling. The Center seeks to address the role of rotating convection and large-scale flows in the generation and maintenance of magnetic fields in the Sun and stars.

Principal Investigator: Katepalli Sreenivasan
Co-PIs: Ian Dobbs-Dixon, Laurent Gizon, Shravan Hanasoge, Muataz Al Barwani    
Program: Physics, Mathematics    
Division: Science

Center for Stability, Instability, and Turbulence

Instability of dynamics flows and their transition to turbulence are widespread phenomena in engineering, computer science, geophysics, biophysics, and the natural environment. The Center's interdisciplinary research will develop novel enabling technology to deal with this phenomena.

Principal Investigator: Nader Masmoudi 
Co-PIs: Tej-eddine Ghoul, Francesco Paparella  
Program: Mathematics    
Division: Science

Global TIES for Children

Global TIES designs, evaluates, and advises on programs and policies to improve the lives of children and youth in the most vulnerable regions across the globe.

Principal Investigator: J. Lawrence Aber, Hirokazu Yoshikawa
Program: Social Research and Public Policy, Psychology
Division: Social Science

Humanities Research Fellowships for the Study of the Arab World

The NYUAD Institute has embarked on a multi-year research fellowship program in the Humanities. This program aims to help create an energetic, multi-faceted research environment for the Humanities and the study of the Arab world at NYUAD's campus.

Principal Investigator: Martin Klimke
Co-PIs: Reindert Falkenburg, Taneli Kukkonen
Program: Anthropology, Arab Crossroads Studies, Arab Music Studies, Arabic, Art and Art History, Literature and Creative Writing, Philosophy, Psychology
Division: Arts and Humanities, Social-Science

Library of Arabic Literature

The Library of Arabic Literature offers Arabic editions and English translations of significant works of Arabic literature, with an emphasis on the 7th to 19th centuries.

Principal Investigator: Philip Kennedy
Division: Arts and Humanities

Neuroscience of Language Lab

The Neuroscience of Language Lab (NeLLab) brings together complementary research programs in the cognitive neuroscience of language. We aim to integrate linguistics and neurobiology in an effort to uncover the neural bases of language comprehension and production.  

Principal Investigator: Alec Marantz, Liina Pylkannen   
Program: Psychology, Linguistics   
Division: Science, Social Science

Public Health Research Center

The center addresses critical topics for Abu Dhabi in public health science, including diabetes and obesity.

Principal Investigator: Raghib Ali
Co-PIs: Youssef Idaghdour, Scott Sherman
Program: Public Health
Division: Science, Social Science

Water Research Center

The Water Research Center (NYUAD-WRC) aims to promote innovative research in water desalination, wastewater treatment, environmental policy, and social issues. The center serves as an interdisciplinary innovation hub for water research where scientific knowledge is transformed into practical solutions.

Principal Investigator: Dr. Nidal Hilal
Co-PIs: Dr. Raed Hashaikeh, Dr. Ali Trabolsi, John Burt
Program: Engineering, Chemistry, Biology
Division: Engineering/Science

About the Research Institute

Launched in 2010 as a world-class center of cutting-edge and innovative research, scholarship and cultural activity, the Research Institute was founded as a key component of the NYUAD campus, a campus where research would be integral to the undergraduate experience and would drive the graduate program. 

By supporting research on critical problems in and across disciplines, and attracting an international cohort of faculty, students, and researchers, the Research Institute has built a truly innovative research capacity in Abu Dhabi that catalyzes the development of Abu Dhabi as a capital of ideas, research, and education.