Media report on Dagher’s White House honor

Composites World, Politico, The Associated Press, Bangor Daily News, WABI (Channel 5), WLBZ (Channel 2), Q 106.5 FM, Portland Press Herald, Mainebiz and Lebanese Examiner reported Habib Dagher, founding director of the University of Maine Advanced Structures and Composites Center, is being recognized as a 2015 White House Transportation Champion of Change. The White House Champions of Change program honors Americans who are empowering and inspiring members of their communities. Dagher will be honored at the Oct. 13 White House Champions of Change event in Washington, D.C. The event will focus on “Innovators in Transportation for the Future,” and will recognize 11 of the nation’s top transportation innovators for their exemplary leadership in advancing transportation and leading change that benefits the nation’s transportation system. Dagher is the primary inventor of the award-winning Composite Arch Bridge System known as the Bridge-In-A-BackpackTM. Dagher’s history of innovation includes being named on 24 patents with eight more pending. “I’m really, really humbled,” Dagher told the BDN. “[The award] really belongs to the entire center, to the entire team.” Daily Journal, Maine Public Broadcasting Network, WGME (Channel 13 in Portland) and Seacoastonline carried the AP report.