What: November 2026 Meeting: MARS Center Tour
The MARS (Miller Advanced Research & Solutions) Center is the premier hypersonic materials manufacturing lab in the United States. The MARS Center focuses on advanced manufacturing of high-performance materials supporting national security applications, including hypersonics, missile systems, rocket motors, thermal protection systems, and other advanced aerospace technologies. The Center also supports workforce development and technology transition between academia, government, and industry.
Presenter: Dr. Benjamin Garcia, Executive Director of the MARS Center at Weber State University. Dr. Garcia has 20 years of industrial experience in the aerospace and defense industry. Prior to WSU, Dr. Garcia worked at Northrop Grumman as a R&D manager at the Clearfield, Utah facility focused on automated composites development. He also worked as a senior business development manager for COI Ceramics in San Diego, California for ceramic matrix composite materials. He has experience in advanced manufacturing of composites, thermal protection systems, insulation, and ceramic matrix and carbon/carbon composites. Dr. Garcia received a BS in Materials Engineering from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo and a doctorate in Materials Science and Engineering from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. He now leads the Miller Advanced Research and Solutions (MARS) Center at Weber State University which is a development center for the advanced manufacturing of high-performance composites.
Where: MARS Center, Weber State University, Clearfield, UT
When: Thursday, November 12, 2026 from 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM MST
Lunch: NOT provided
RSVP: No later than 5:00 PM MDT Tuesday, November 10, 2026 to carlos.nunez@hdrinc.com