Senator Collins Meets with Dr. Habib Dagher, Founding Director of UMaine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center, to Discuss UMaine’s Partnership with Oak Ridge National Lab
Click HERE for a photo of Senator Collins, Dr. Habib Dagher, and Oak Ridge’s Mohammad Khaleel
Click HERE for b-roll of Senator Collins, Dr. Dagher, and Mr. Khaleel
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Susan Collins met with Dr. Habib Dagher, the founding Director of the University of Maine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center, to discuss a variety of ongoing projects at UMaine as well as their partnership with Oak Ridge National Lab. Mohammad (Moe) Khaleel, the Associate Director of the Oak Ridge National Lab, also attended the meeting.
“The partnership between UMaine and Oak Ridge allows UMaine students and faculty to work alongside researchers at Oak Ridge to develop new technologies that will benefit Maine’s small businesses and create new job opportunities throughout our state,” said Senator Collins. “This productive relationship has already produced impressive results and holds great promise for future advancements.”
Senator Collins, a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, secured key funding in the fiscal year (FY) 2019 Energy and Water bill to help UMaine and Oak Ridge develop a “hub-and-spoke” model for additive manufacturing to centralize design and testing for practical applications of 3D printing in the field. One of the first objectives of the program is to help boat builders produce 3D printed molds at a fraction of the time and cost.
Since the beginning of her Senate service, Senator Collins has worked to advance the cutting-edge research performed at UMaine. Last year, Senator Collins announced that the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) awarded a total of $2,570,600 in grant funding to UMaine to lead the creation of a highly-competitive University Transportation Center (UTC). Additionally, Senator Collins secured substantial funding for UMaine’s wind energy project, Aqua Ventus, in the FY19 Energy and Water bill.
UMaine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center is a world-leading, interdisciplinary center for research, education, and economic development encompassing material sciences, manufacturing, and engineering of composites and structures. The Center is housed in a 100,000 square foot testing laboratory with more than 150 full- and part-time personnel.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory is the largest U.S. Department of Energy science and energy laboratory, conducting basic and applied research to deliver transformative solutions to compelling problems in energy and security.
