On June 6, 2014, UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski and U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command (RDECOM) Director Dale Ormond signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA).
The CRADA enables future collaboration between UMBC and the U.S. Army. At the signing, President Hrabowski spoke of the tremendous potential impact of the agreement, stating, “Nothing is more important in our country than building strong partnerships.” Director Ormond expressed enthusiasm for the partnership and discussed internships for UMBC students, saying, “Once I get a kid into our laboratories, they get to do things they can’t do anywhere else… We will challenge them beyond their wildest dreams.”
Immediately after the CRADA was signed, Karl Steiner, vice president of research at UMBC, and Suzanne Milchling, director of program integration at ECBC, signed a Joint Work Statement giving Professor Bradley Arnold, chemistry and biochemistry, and a graduate student the opportunity to conduct research at RDECOM’s Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (ECBC).
“Over the next 10 to 15 years, we’re going to have a huge changeover in our workforce. About 50 percent of our scientists and engineers are in their early to mid-50s,” Ormond shared. “I need smart, bright people who have STEM degrees to come work for us so we can continue to push the leading edges of science and engineering.”
