Vice President for Research's Meritorious Technology/Science Award: Douglas Cairns, Founders Day Faculty Awards, Academic Year 2023-24. Portrait of Douglas Cairns.

Douglas Cairns

Montana State University recently announced Douglas Cairns as the winner of the Vice President’s for Research Meritorious Technology Science Award. Cairns is a professor of mechanical engineering in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering in the Norm Asbjornson College of Engineering. The award carries a $2,500 honorarium. 

“The Technology Transfer Office has worked closely with Dr. Cairns in facilitating his numerous impactful collaborations with industry, universities and the U.S. Army in developing a groundbreaking carbon fiber manufacturing process for producing the next generation of aircraft components,” wrote Nick Zelver, a senior technology manager with MSU Technology Transfer Office, in the letter nominating Cairns for this award. “Over the past five years, with Army funding of $35 million, Dr. Cairns, alongside his team of more than 30 MSU faculty, students and former industry leaders in carbon fiber manufacturing, has met the challenge. The MSU team, in collaboration with local machining companies, has developed the innovative ‘Bobcat Head’ for significantly improved Stretch Broken Carbon Fiber manufacturing.”  

Carbon fiber is the material of choice in aerospace and various applications due to its high strength, durability and lightweight properties. Its wider application has been limited by high production costs, unreliable manufacturing processes and the challenges with shaping the carbon fiber into complicated forms required for advanced aircraft components.  

Recognizing the need to address past SBCF failures, Cairns and his team developed an ambitious plan to systematically dissect the problems and find a technological solution.  

“Many of the institutional awards are individual awards such as teaching, scholarship, and service,” Cairns said. “However, this is truly a team award. Without the team we have assembled, my individual contributions would be irrelevant.”