Daily News Briefs

Robert Q. Fugate and William L. Baker, two senior scientists with the Air Force Research Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., were recently awarded 2003 Presidential Rank Awards, putting them in the top 5 percent of senior civilian executives in the federal government. Fugate, senior scientist for atmospheric compensation at the Starfire Optical Range of the laboratory's Directed Energy Directorate, received a Distinguished Senior Professional award, and Baker, the directorate's chief scientist, received a Meritorious Senior Professional award. Fugate heads a research program on atmospheric propagation physics, which includes atmospheric compensation using laser guide star adaptive optics and the acquisition, tracking and pointing of lasers toward earth-orbiting satellites; the program involves developing sensors, instrumentation and mount control of large-aperture, ground-based telescopes. Baker is known for his development of intense plasma implosion x-ray sources. He initiated and directed Air Force work to develop high-energy particle beams as directed energy weapons and subsequently formed and led the Air Force's high-power microwave program. . . . BOC Edwards, a West Sussex, England-based global supplier of materials, equipment and services to the microelectronics manufacturing industry, announced it will construct a 60-tonnes per year high-purity silane transfill facility in Kunshan, Suzhou, China. Local distribution facilities, known as transfills, compress bulk gas into cylinders for shipment to customer sites. The new facility will serve the semiconductor, flat panel and float glass industries in China and other regions in Asia. Part of the project involves a long-term silane supply agreement that has been negotiated with Advanced Silicon Materials LLC , of Butte, Mont. Groundbreaking will be in the next two months. . . . Image acquisition company Leutrek Vision Inc., of Burlington, Mass., has changed its name to Leutron Vision Inc.; the company also announced it has appointed Gary Pitre as its North America sales manager.