Lincoln County Regional Planning Commission holds its 2017 annual meeting on Tuesday, April 25 from 5 to 7 p.m., at the 1812 Farm in Bristol. In addition to a brief annual meeting, the LCRPC is pleased to present as guest speaker Dr. Habib Dagher of the University of Maine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center.

Dr. Dagher, P.E. is the founding executive director of UMaine’s Composites Center, and leads the Department of Energy’s (DOE) New England Aqua Ventus I Offshore Wind Advanced Technology Demonstration Project. The Center, a world leader in bringing advanced materials into construction, was established by the National Science Foundation in 1996. It has grown under Dr. Dagher’s leadership from four to 180 employees, is now housed in a 100,000-foot laboratory, and has won over 40 national and international innovation and excellence awards.

The Center has gained national and international reputation from major research and development projects such as the VolturnUS 1:8, the first grid-connected floating offshore wind turbine in the U.S. 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 U.S. 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 U.S. Navy.

To drive innovation in offshore wind energy, Dr. Dagher spearheaded the development of the Alfond W2 Ocean Engineering Laboratory, a unique facility with a rotatable high-accuracy wind generator over a multi-directional wave basin, as well as the Offshore Wind Laboratory, the second largest wind blade testing facility in the U.S.

Dr. Dagher earned his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and joined UMaine in 1985. He was honored as White House Transportation Champion of Change in 2015, and was selected as Engineering New Record’s Top 25 Newsmakers for 2016. Dr. Dagher holds 26 patents with six pending. He has testified before the U.S. Senate on offshore wind energy as a pathway to national energy independence.

 The Lincoln County Regional Planning Commission is the economic development and planning organization for Lincoln County, led by a board of local residents and officials. The Planning Commission works with municipalities, businesses, and non-profit groups in community development (shore and harbor infrastructure, water and sewer), coastal resiliency, transportation, business growth, brownfields assessments, habitat improvement, community health, broadband, and other activities..

The annual meeting begins at 5 p..m with networking and refreshments, and includes highlights of the past year and board elections. The meeting is open to the public, and local officials, residents, businesses, and non-profits are encouraged to attend. There is no charge, except for the cash bar. Preregistrations are requested either online at www.lcrpc.org or by calling 882-5983.