Israel and Jordan Plan Joint Research Center, With Backing From Foundation and 2 U.S. Universities
By DANIEL DEL CASTILLO

Israel and Jordan announced this week that they were teaming up to build one of the Middle East's most advanced scientific-research institutions on 150 acres of desert at the frontier between the two countries.

The Bridging the Rift Center, which will take several years to complete, is being developed by Cornell and Stanford Universities at the invitation of the Bridging the Rift Foundation, a private nonprofit organization whose mission is to "build an effective bridge between people in conflict areas by demonstrating the benefits of peace in measurable, sustainable ways and collaborative programs involving economic development, cutting-edge research, and advanced educational opportunities."

The center will focus on the life sciences, and its primary work will be a project called the Library of Life. "The ultimate goal is to catalog all of the world's DNA, and the initial phase will start in the Dead Sea area and the region where the center is," said James E. Haldeman, senior associate director of international programs at Cornell's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Beginning next year, Cornell and Stanford will each offer full Ph.D. fellowships to four to six Israeli and Jordanian students. When the center is fully operational, each university will expand its fellowship program to approximately 20 students. Doctoral candidates will do their course work in the United States and then carry out fieldwork at the center before returning to one of the two universities to finish writing and then defend their dissertations.

"The center will be able to produce a cadre of scholars that can go back to Jordan and other countries in the Middle East and develop technology and science in those places," said Marcus W. Feldman, a professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford. "I regard it as a development of science in the cause of peace."

Faculty members from both Stanford and Cornell will spend time at the center carrying out their own research. "Scientists involved at Stanford span the range from physiological ecology to genomics to bioinformatics," Mr. Feldman said. "Our role will be the training of Ph.D. students and then initiating, supporting, and guiding research in the field and laboratory in these areas."

In addition to promoting advanced scientific research in a region blighted by the lack of well-financed institutions, the foundation regards science as an instrument to promote peace.

"Scientists share the same common language, and with that language we can build dialogue between people," said Mati Kochavi, the foundation's chief executive. "Science and technology, which in many ways represent the future, also represent hope and belief in important values, and we thought that would create strong societies in the Middle East that support peace."

The center, which Mr. Kochavi described as costing "several tens of millions of dollars," should eventually be open to other Arab students and researchers. "Initially it's going to be with Jordan," Mr. Kochavi said, "but our vision and hope is that it will be with all of the Middle Eastern countries."

The official groundbreaking for the center is scheduled for March 9. Simultaneous ceremonies in Jerusalem and Amman will mark the occasion.