JP Sercel Associates (JPSA) of Manchester, N.H., a maker of laser systems for wafer processing and micromachining, announced the appointment of Cristian Porneala, PhD, as an applications engineer. Porneala will work in the company's applications lab and is responsible for the parameterization, setup and operation of excimer and solid-state laser systems. He has a background in laser applications and laser-material interaction, and is also knowledgeable in the areas of heat transfer, material science, and laser-assisted manufacturing and optics, JPSA said. Porneala's research has focused on thermal and fluid flow phenomena involved in short-pulse laser microprocessing. He has authored several journal and conference papers related to phase explosion and dielectric transition during nanosecond laser ablation of metals. He was also involved in several research projects and developed a time-resolved microphotography station with nanosecond resolution to study the laser-induced vapor expansion and test micromachining of thin metallic films.