NEOM, the sustainable regional development in northwest Saudi Arabia, has appointed Dr. Andreas Cangellaris as the Founding President of NEOM U – NEOM’s first university.
Cangellaris is joining NEOM from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he is the M. E. Van Valkenburg Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering and has been serving as Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Provost since 2018.
NEOM aims to establish a world-class Education, Research and Innovation (ERI) hub that empowers future generations while using technology to engender new ways of learning from early years on, through primary, secondary, post-secondary education and beyond.
These goals support the transformation of Saudi Arabia’s educational sector.
Dr. Cangellaris has overseen the academic and research programs of a highly regarded US academic institution with over 50,000 students, 15 colleges and 150+ programs of study and in excess of USD 600 million in annual research expenditures.
A distinguished scholar in the fields of computational electromagnetics and electronic design automation, he received his Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Thessaloniki, Greece and his graduate degrees, a Master of Science and Ph.D., in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.
“I am delighted that we have attracted a person of the caliber of Dr. Cangellaris to lead one of the critical pillars of our education sector,” said CEO of NEOM Nadhmi Al-Nasr.
“NEOM U is our first step toward developing a postsecondary education that is accessible to all, attracting the brightest students from all over Kingdom and the world. We want it to be a differentiator and a powerful signal of NEOM’s commitment to pioneering ideas in a world inspired by innovation.”
Cangellaris said he was honored to have been given this opportunity.
“To change the world for the better, you need everyone to become a change agent. And this is what NEOM U will do, by bringing together learners from the Kingdom and the world in NEOM’s living laboratory and immersing them in the learning of how the deliberate, responsible, innovative use of technology can improve our world and the human condition,” he said.
