UMaine Advanced Structures and Composites Center
The Advanced Structures and Composites Center is an independent research unit at the University of Maine that provides research, education, and economic development encompassing material sciences, manufacturing and engineering of composites and structures.
The center was founded in 1996 with support from the National Science Foundation by Dr. Habib Dagher, P.E. Annually, the center employs a staff of 180, inclusive of 140 undergraduate and graduate students from a range of academic backgrounds.
The center is housed in a 100,000 ft2, ISO 17025 testing laboratory accredited by the International Accreditation Service.
In 2014, the center was designated as a "Signature Research Area" of the University of Maine.
The center has gained national and international recognition for major research and development projects such as the VolturnUS 1:8, the first grid-connected floating offshore wind turbine in the US and the first in the world made out of concrete and composite materials, the inflatable composite arch bridges "Bridge-in-a-Backpack" technology now approved in the AASHTO Code, the first Modular Ballistic Protection System (MBPS) approved by the US Army to protect troops in tents from blast and ballistic threats, development of coated wood technology for blast and hurricane resistant wood buildings, and the longest carbon-fiber composite vessel built for the US Navy.
Habib Dagher is the founding Executive Director of the Advanced Structures & Composites Center at the University of Maine. Dr. Dagher is an advocate for developing advanced structural systems which simultaneously optimize structures, materials, and construction.
Dagher holds 25 U.S. and international patents with 8 additional patents pending, and has received numerous awards including the 2015 White House Transportation Champion of Change, awarded for the development of composite arch bridge system technology; the Carnegie Foundation Maine Professor of the Year; the Distinguished Maine Professor Award, the highest award given to a faculty member at UMaine; and the American Society of Civil Engineers Charles Pankow Innovation Award.
Dagher earned his Ph.D. in structural engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as well as two master's degrees in Structural engineering and engineering mechanics and joined the University of Maine faculty in 1985.
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