AU Heads FAA Research Center of Excellence
The Department of Transportation's Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has
selected Auburn University to head its new Center of Excellence for Airliner Cabin
Environment Research.
"The center, which is comprised of Auburn, Purdue University, Harvard University, Boise State University, Kansas State University, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will research aircraft cabin air quality and conduct an assessment of chemical and biological threats," says AU's Vice President for Research Michael Moriarty.
"Auburn's selection as lead institution in the consortium is the result of its assets in biological and chemical detection and decontamination," says William Gale, alumni professor in AU's materials engineering program and principal investigator in the consortium. "The work done at Auburn will be multi-disciplinary and will involve researchers in the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering, the College of Sciences and Mathematics, the College of Veterinary Medicine, the College of Agriculture."
The FAA is appropriating $1 million for the center, to be used as start-up and leveraging funds. Gale adds, however, that the consortium already has more than $20 million in external research support commitments from private industry.
"We already have a number of high profile companies who have agreed to sponsor our research," he says. "Among them are such names as Boeing, Delta Airlines, Honeywell, and General Electric Aircraft Engines."
