Daily News Briefs

David Townsend, PhD, was named Distinguished Clinical Scientist of the Year and Sanjiv Gambhir, MD, PhD, as Distinguished Basic Scientist of the Year by the Academy of Molecular Imaging (AMI) for their contributions to the development and enhancement of postiron emission tomography and molecular imaging. Townsend is a professor in the department of medicine and radiology and director of cancer imaging and tracer development at the University of Tennessee Cancer Institute. As a co-inventor of PET/computed tomography, he was awarded the 2002 Medical Invention of the Year award by Time magazine. Gambhir is director of the Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford, Stanford University, and is chief of nuclear medicine and a professor of radiology at the Stanford School of Medicine. He has developed several new reporter gene/eporter probes that are being used in cell trafficking models, gene therapy models and in transgenic models for studying cancer biology. The awards will be presented at the AMI annual meeting, to be held March 27-31 in Orlando, Fla. The award winners will each receive a $20,000 cash prize. . . . James T. Healy has been named president and CEO of LogicVision Inc., a San Jose, Calif.-based provider of embedded test for integrated circuits (IC) and systems. He will also join the board of directors. He succeeds LogicVision founder Vinod Agarwal, who is now executive chairman and chief strategist. Healy was most recently president of Spirox USA, a provider of advanced IC solutions from design and fabrication through assembly and test for the semiconductor and technology industries. Spirox is the distributor for LogicVision products in China. . . . Aixtron announced it has received an order for an AIX 200/4 RF-S MOCVD (metalorganic chemical vapor deposition) system from West Virginia University, in Morgantown, W.Va. Eugene Cilento, dean of the College of Engineering and Mineral Resources, said the new tool will allow the university to focus on nanotechnology through its research of nitrides. "The potential to develop new nitride-related material composites and niche applications holds great promise while we increase our research and development of devices like ultraviolet emitters and detectors, biological sensors and HEMTs (high-electron mobility transistors)," he added.