Daily News Briefs

Omkaram Nalamasu, director of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Center for Integrated Electronics, has been selected to receive the Roy W. Tess Award in Coatings for 2004 from the American Chemical Society’s Division of Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering (PMSE). In announcing the award this week, PMSE said Nalamasu’s pioneering contributions to optical lithography and photoresist materials have played a major role in enabling the microelectronics revolution. Nalamasu developed key concepts related to the chemically amplified photoresist process and novel resist materials and processes. He applied his research to the implementation of both 248-nm and 193-nm photoresist technologies; applications for his work include computer chip fabrication. The Society will present the award at its annual meeting, to be held August 23 in Philadelphia. . . . Harvey A. Wagner has joined the board of directors of Cree Inc. and was appointed to its compensation and audit committees. Dolph von Arx will remain chairman of the audit committee. Wagner was previously CFO of Mirant Corp. Cree, based in Durham, N.C., uses silicon carbide to make blue LEDs. . . . Nikon Corp. is building a $70 million training center at its Belmont, Calif., US headquarters. The company said it plans to hold 500 classes per year at the facility, which will house several steppers and scanners in a cleanroom designed for sub 90 nm lithography applications using advanced lithography equipment. Nikon plans to move equipment into the building by December and said classes will start in February 2005.