Lawrence Tech Renames Center for Innovative Materials Research, and More

Lawrence Technological University in Southfield has renamed its materials research lab as the Nabil Grace Center for Innovative Materials Research in the southeast corner of LTU’s campus.

Named after the university’s engineering dean, a researcher dedicated to improving the lifespan of bridges and other crucial structures, the building has become a world-leading infrastructure laboratory under his watch.

This center was developed and overseen by Grace, who was instrumental in its construction and operation.

“The Innovative Materials Research Center here at LTU is one of this nation’s, and the world’s, largest and most comprehensive infrastructure laboratories,” says Douglas Ebert, chair of the LTU Board of Trustees. “The prolific research that Dr. Grace leads here is resulting in massive improvements in the durability, life, safety, and ultimately the cost of transportation-related infrastructure, particularly highway bridges.

“He’s received dozens of federal, state, and private research grants and contracts totaling nearly $28 million. And along the way his work has attracted new industry and pathways to opportunity and success right here in Michigan.”

Completed in 2008, LTU’s CIMR is a 7,200-square-foot research facility with a 30-foot interior height. It has a 25-ton crane to accommodate testing of structural components up to 100 feet long under various types of loads up to one million pounds. It also features a large-scale fire chamber with dynamic and static loading capabilities that can test structural components in temperatures up to 2,400°F, conditions like those of the 9/11 World Trade Center terrorist attack — the event that inspired the Grace CIMR’s construction.

CIMR also houses an environmental chamber spacious enough for a large vehicle, which can simulate harsh weather conditions such as high wind, freezing rain, sub-zero temperatures of minus 80°F, or dry heat up to 180°F. Also in the CIMR are small environmental chambers that measure the performance of materials when subjected to pulling, twisting, and repeated loads, and a chamber that can subject materials to a variety of forces at temperatures ranging from minus 80°F to 600°F.

“It is rare indeed that a person who is still active as a faculty member, researcher, and administrator has a building named after him,” says Virinder Moudgil, president of LTU. “This speaks a volume of the credentials and contributions and the person he is, a good citizen of the university, of the community, a person who has personally contributed to the economic growth of the region, who is right in front of the infrastructure that is being discussed nationally and locally.”