Feature: Dow Gift

DOW GIFT WILL ACCELERATE COMPOSITES RESEARCH AT MSU

'On one level, this is a testament to what we've done since 1985. On another, it's an investment in our future. But on a third level, what this does is challenge our faculty and staff. 'Here's $5 million. What are you going to do with it?'' -- Lawrence Drzal, Director MSU's Composite Materials and Structures Center In an era of seemingly endless reports on America's dreary economic status, news of a major gift to MSU's College of Engineering arrived like a breath of fresh air.

A $5 million grant from the Midland-based Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation effectively secured MSU's place among the nation's leaders in composite materials research. More importantly, the gift renewed hope for a future in which new and better materials will reinvigorate America's economic prowess. The Celebrating the Gift announcement came at a January 15 news conference in Midland. Dow Foundation trustees, MSU President John DiBiaggio, engineering faculty and administrators, Michigan corporate leaders, and others gathered to celebrate the gift, the largest ever received by the College of Engineering and one of the largest ever made by the Dow Foundation.

The money establishes a materials research institute and anchors construction of a new wing on the Engineering Building. The addition will house the Composite Materials and Structures Center (CMSC), affiliated laboratories, and faculty offices. Less than a month after the news conference, university trustees voted to name the new institute the Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Institute for Materials Research. According to Engineering Dean Theodore A. Bickart, 'the new facility will physically unite researchers at the Composite Materials and Structures Center, now located across the campus, with colleagues in the Engineering Building. This consolidation will increase synergism and accelerate advances in materials science and engineering.' Bickart added that 'the Dow gift will enhance collaboration between the university and Michigan industry and speed the transfer of technology to the marketplace.' Approximately 60 percent of all scholarly work conducted at the college is devoted to materials research, Bickart explained, and it is 'dominated by research in composite materials under the aegis of the Composite Materials and Structures Center directed by Professor Lawrence T. Drzal.' 

Composites are materials formed by combining two or more components, such as plastics and glass or carbon fibers. Lightweight, strong, and corrosion-proof, composites are increasingly replacing steel and aluminum, creating revolutionary change in the aerospace, automotive, chemical, defense, and household-products industries. For all their promise, composites pose one problem for manufacturers: they frequently cost more than traditional metals. So, in addition to working closely with industry to make new composite products, MSU's engineering faculty are working on new, more efficient and less-expensive ways of making and forming composites.

Michigan State's prominence in the field has grown rapidly since the CMSC was created nearly a decade ago. Last September, the National Science Foundation awarded $1 million for the study of low-cost, high-speed polymer composites processing. The project is directed by chemical engineering professor Martin Hawley and CMSC's Drzal. It is just one facet of a four-year, $4 million program jointly sponsored by the State of Michigan and industry through the Michigan Materials and Processing Institute, a consortium of national corporations interested in polymer composites.

Michigan State is also a major player in the Composites Automation Consortium, a partnership that includes industrial giants such as Lockheed, independent research labs, and three universities -- Michigan State, Stanford University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A long-time supporter of science and technology projects throughout Michigan, the Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation knows MSU's work in materials science. 'It's among the best in the country,' says foundation secretary and trustee Herbert D. (Ted) Doan, who is also chairman of the Michigan Molecular Institute. Foundation President Herbert H. Dow adds that 'MSU has an impressive history in polymer composites research and technology, and in planning for the future.'

Th eAdvancing a Vision future was on MSU President DiBiaggio's mind when he termed the gift 'a catalyst for good that goes far beyond campus boundaries.' "Because of the generosity of the Dow Foundation," he added, "we can build a facility where innovation and invention will flourish, and the fruits of cutting-edge research will directly benefit people in the state and around the world."

Perhaps Professor Drzal was also pondering the future when he spoke of the 'challenge' ahead for the engineering department's faculty and staff. What do you do with $5 million? You build a facility that's second to none, and then, says Dean Bickart, you 'work with others -- in universities, in private and government laboratories, and in industry -- to advance a vision we share: new and better materials to improve the human condition and promote a healthy society.'

WHAT'S A COMPOSITE?

At the January 15 press conference announcing the Dow Foundation's $5 million gift to MSU, College of Engineering dean Theodore Bickart interrupted his public remarks for an 'instructional interlude.' Here are excerpts:

A composite is the combination of two or more simple materials to create a complex material with desired properties. One material is included in another, the latter being referred to as the matrix. For example, if you include fiber glass cloth into epoxy, you create the material used to make most pleasure boat hulls. Insert stones into cement and you have concrete -- one of the most widely used construction materials. Fiber glass threads in a paper pulp matrix produces extremely strong paper, the kind used for envelopes that defy mutilation. The combinations are many. Consequently, the expectation is high that we will be able, in the future, to tailor a material to the planned function of a product.

And this from Professor Larry Drzal, director of MSU's Composite Materials and Structures Center (CMSC): When I take ordinary window glass and spin it into a fiber, its strength will go up from about 5,000 pounds per square inch to 200,000 pounds per square inch. A carbon fiber actually reaches a tensile strength of more than one million pounds per square inch. In composites, we combine fibers with another material to create a structural component from which we can make a load-bearing element. We can use them to reinforce metals, ceramics, polymers, cement and wood and get some unheard-of properties -- high strengths and stiffness with reduced weights.