Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood recently singled out for praise the work being done by the Great Lakes Maritime Research Institute, which is a consortium of the UW-Superior Transportation and Logistics Research Center and the University of Minnesota Duluth.

Speaking to industry leaders of the Great Lakes/St. Lawrence Seaway transportation system at Marine Community Day, Secretary LaHood said, "I want to thank the Great Lakes Maritime Research Institute for all their hard work to produce research and information that helps us meet our environmental goals."

See video of Secretary LaHood's comments. He mentions GLMRI at about 5:00 minutes into the video.

GLMRI was established in 2004 to pursue research efforts in marine transportation, logistics, economics, engineering, environmental planning, and port management.

In the same talk, Secretary LaHood also praised ballast water treatment research to find ways to bar exotic species from the Great Lakes. UW-Superior's Lake Superior Research Institute is involved in a major ballast water treatment research project.

Marine Community Day, held Feb. 10-11 in Cleveland, is a premier conference for celebrating the economic contributions, partnerships and future of the Great Lakes/St. Lawrence Seaway system.