UMaine Advanced Engineered Wood Composites Center Recognized for Outstanding Use of Wood
Contact: Joseph E. Phaneuf, Executive Director, jphaneuf@northernlogger.com
(The following is a Northeastern Loggers’ Association press release.)
Bangor, ME – The Northeastern Loggers’ Association (NELA) recently honored the UMaine Advanced Engineered Wood Composites Center of Orono, ME as the recipient of its 2007 Outstanding Use of Wood award. NELA President John Caveney honored the AEWC Center at the Annual Loggers’ Banquet in Bangor, ME in a ceremony attended by over 300 members of the Northeast’s forest products community.
“Paper, lumber, and energy are some of the traditional uses for the forest resource here in Maine and throughout the northeast” Caveney told the assemble crowd in his comments. “But over the past sixteen years the University of Maine’s AEWC Center has been working hard to develop new uses for our precious resource. The AEWC Center is a globally recognized leader in composites research and development, and their research often leads to the commercial development of next generation, cost-effective, high-performance, wood and nonwood composite materials.”
“The work they are doing at the Center is truly groundbreaking” Caveney continued, “and it’s really beyond my capabilities to describe it. However, I think it’s enough to say that for every new use for pulpwood, for every development that upgrades the structural performance of a wood-based product, for every new commercial use for wood that the Center develops — that’s another reason for a logger to get up in the morning and to get out into the woods.”
“Truly, the Center’s goal to actively pursue commercialization, entrepreneurship, and job creation in Maine and beyond provides us a good reason to be optimistic about the wood industry. For this reason, we’re proud to recognize the University of Maine’s Advanced Engineered Wood Composites Center as this year’s recipient of our Outstanding Use of Wood award” Caveney concluded. The AEWC Center’s Director Professor Habib Dagher was present to accept the award.
The Northeastern Loggers’ Association, headquartered in Old Forge, NY, is a trade group representing over 2,000 members of the Northeast’s logging, sawmilling, and paper industry. The Loggers’ Banquet is held each year immediately prior to the Northeastern Forest Products Equipment Expo.