On July 1, 2007, leadership of the University of Delaware changed hands when David Roselle retired after serving as President of UD for 17 years. We are grateful to him for the strong support he provided to CCM for almost two decades, and we wish him well in his retirement.

At the same time, we look forward to the new era that begins with new leadership. Patrick Harker, former Dean of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, is UD’s twenty-sixth President. With an academic background in civil engineering and economics, Harker brings
credentials as both an engineer and a business leader.

We at CCM share a common vision with Harker—a belief that knowledge must be given life in the marketplace and not just end up as “a journal report on a shelf somewhere,” as well as a conviction that innovation often appears at the “cracks between disciplines.”

Harker’s administration opens the doors for a new type of collaboration, the knowledge-based partnership, wherein all of the partners—government, industry, and academia—are involved and invested from the beginning. Knowledge-based partnerships will lead to economic development for the state and foster entrepreneurship among faculty, staff, students, and the University’s industrial and government partners.

For CCM, this new era will lead to a new level of success. Our approach has traditionally been to collaborate with industry and government on basic and applied research and then to transition the developed technology for use in field applications. For example, the Army Research Laboratory supports basic research at CCM through ongoing center of excellence programs such as the most recent CMR Program, which focuses on multifunctional composite materials and structures for lightweight vehicle protection. Awarded in May 2006, the program will provide up to $18M of basic research support over five years. Augmenting the CMR program is the Composites Applied Research and Technology (CART) Program, which was awarded in April 2007 to mature promising basic research. Finally, we have a new $50M contract with TACOM for technology transfer over the next five years. Taken together, these programs demonstrate our ability to work with our industrial and government partners at all points on the spectrum from basic research to new applications, where our interdisciplinary teams “fill the cracks between disciplines.”

Our industrial consortium, established almost 30 years ago, continues to thrive and to complement our work with defense agencies

More than 75 companies, from small local firms to international corporations, are actively participating.

SBIR/STTR programs provide fruitful opportunities for us to work with small companies, helping them to stimulate economic development in the state and the region. The interdisciplinary research environment and open lab philosophy we have created here promote innovation and discovery, team-
oriented research, and unique educational experiences. While we believe that basic research is a primary responsibility both for CCM and for the University as a whole, we also see the needs of industry as academic research opportunities. In addition, industry participation is essential to achieve rapid technology transition and commercialization.

International collaborations will be increasingly important as we move into this new era of a global economy and knowledge-based partnerships. We at CCM have long recognized that international collaboration is at the forefront of science and partnerships. Prof. Tsu-Wei Chou, who has been teaching composites courses at UD for almost four decades, exemplifies this concept. After initiating a partnership with researchers in the United Kingdom in the mid-1970s, Chou went on to interact and collaborate with researchers in more than a dozen other countries. He is currently part of a team conducting research supported by the Korean government in the area of nanotechnology.

With this strong foundation of partnerships in place, CCM is ready to take the next step with the new UD leadership. We are also preparing to expand our physical facilities to keep up with our rapidly growing research and tech transfer programs. In addition to the 34,000-square-foot Composites Manufacturing Science Laboratory that serves as our headquarters, we have 18,000 square feet at our CCM South facility.

Our plan now is to take our success to the next level and focus on promoting an entrepreneurial environment and creating new businesses and new jobs for the region. As a first step in that direction, we will talk with our industrial, state, and academic partners about how to move forward to initiate the next phase. We want to continue to invest in long-term basic research, but at the same time create an environment that can lead to new technological breakthroughs and new businesses.

We value the continued support of our existing partners in this effort, and we welcome the participation of new ones. Please contact us if you are interested in talking with us about taking the next step toward our vision

John (Jack) Gillespie, Jr.
Director