Daily News Briefs

Donald Fraser, director of The Photonics Center at Boston University, where he is also a professor, received the 2003 Roosevelt Gold Medal for Science from the Navy League of the United States at a league dinner in New York City this week. Fraser was honored for his contributions to the creation and development of public and private sector enterprises exploiting the technology of light. In his current position and previously with the US Department of Defense and Draper Laboratories, Fraser has had a distinguished career managing the development of high technology and photonics-based enterprises. The Navy League, a civilian organization founded in 1902 with the encouragement of President Theodore Roosevelt, is dedicated to the education of citizens and the support of the men and women of the sea services and their families. . . . Doug Natelson, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy and in electrical and computer engineering at Rice University, has been awarded the Packard Fellowship in Science and Engineering. The award, from The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, includes $625,000 in unrestricted grant funds. Natelson's research is aimed at better understanding the physics of electronic conduction at the nanometer scale. One of Natelson's projects focuses on the production of single-molecule transistors -- a feat achieved by only two other research groups in the world. . . . The Infotonics Technology Center, a New York State Center of Excellence in Photonics and Microsystems, received an award for positive economic impact from the Upstate New York Chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties at its 11th annual awards ceremony, held yesterday in Rochester. Rick Jarman, Director of Advanced Manufacturing Affairs at Eastman Kodak Co. and a member of the Infotonics' management team, accepted the award. Along with Corning Inc. and Xerox Corp., Kodak is a corporate member of Infotonics. Academic partners include some 20 New York State colleges and universities.