UMaine’s AEWC Center Names Program Manager for Army R&D
Contact: Joe Carr at (207) 581-3571, or Roberta Laverty (roberta_laverty@umit.maine.edu)
ORONO — Larry Parent, a licensed professional engineer with over 20 years of experience in project management, research and development, and team leadership, has recently joined the University of Maine’s AEWC (Advanced Engineered Wood Composites) Center as Senior Research and Development Program Manager.
Parent, who has extensive R & D experience, has been awarded three patents and has seven other patent applications pending. He most recently worked with a multinational company engaged in developing processing equipment and systems for the paper industry.
Prof. Habib Dagher, director of the AEWC Center, says, “We feel very fortunate to have Larry Parent as the Program Manager for Army R & D. He brings not only strong technical credentials in R & D and process engineering, but he also has a depth of experience in leadership and policy making, goal setting and strategic planning, budgeting, and laboratory facilities management. Larry possesses a unique set of skills that fit perfectly into the AEWC Center’s Army R & D project”.
A 1982 UMaine graduate, Parent will manage a team of UMaine faculty, research associates, graduate and undergraduate students who are working with the Natick Army Soldier Center and the Army Corps of Engineers developing new technologies for U.S. Army force protection.
The center has been awarded a $6.2 million contract to do R & D to fulfill army needs for protection against rocket attacks, mortar rounds and car bombs. The center is developing composite materials, which provide superior ballistic properties, durability, speed of construction, and detection avoidance. These new materials will be used for affordable lightweight ballistic panel tent inserts, rapidly deployable modular bridges and bunker systems, and rigidified airbeam structures.
In addition to direct Army funding to UMaine, Maine’s economy will benefit from this research and development as the project includes composite material suppliers and panel manufacturers from the region as partners. In turn, these local companies will link into the Department of Defense supply chain.
Parent says, “I look forward to working with the Army to identify needs that aren’t at this time fully realized and to promote the use of composite materials to meet those needs. I also look forward to leading the AEWC team in providing the Army with exceptional quality that will exceed expectations.”
Parent, who will be relocating to the Orono area, currently resides in Westbrook with his wife Jennifer and two children, Joel who attends Westbrook High School and Mary Beth who attends UMaine.