U.S. Senator Carl Levin visited the Department of Mechanical Engineering's Composite Vehicle Research Center (CVRC) on Wednesday, October 15. He toured the lab and saw some of the work being done there by Mechanical Engineering Professors Dahsin Liu and Alfred Loos, and Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Professor Lawrence Drzal. Senator Levin also met with Mechanical Engineering's three new faculty members at CVRC - Arjun Tekalur, Soonsung Hong and Xinran Xiao, as well as Post-Doctoral Research Associate Ying Du at her optics lab. Dr. Eann Patterson, CVRC Director and Mechanical Engineering Chair described the CVRC as a "center of excellence for the design and testing of composite structures for lightweight, environmentally friendly, durable and safe vehicles, "with both military and civilian applications. This advanced composite materials research for air and ground vehicles is supported by $2.84 million from the Office of Naval Research (ONR); $1.85 million from the U.S. Army Tank Automative Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC) in Warren, Michigan; and $1.4 million from the Army Research Laboratory. The CVRC, working closely with its Department of Defense agency partners, will examine problems unique to heavy-duty vehicles, striving for solutions applicable to combat vehicles while also answering design questions with civilian applications. "We were delighted to have the opportunity to show Senator Levin around our new facility, particularly because he has been very supportive in establishing the center." Patterson said.