Daily News Briefs

Konarka Technologies, a Lowell, Mass., developer of photovoltaic nanomaterials that convert light to energy, has added Arno Penzias, co-winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1978 and a former Bell Labs chief scientist, to its board of directors and scientific advisory council. Penzias will help direct Konarka's research, technology and product strategies. He is a venture partner with New Enterprise Associates, the lead investor in Konarka's $18 million series-C round of financing. . . . Lockheed Martin has announced a strategic business relationship with ESRI, a developer of geographic information systems (GIS) software, to develop and market system solutions and services for defense, intelligence and homeland security. Lockheed Martin will use its lab facilities to develop prototypes and demonstrate the integration of ESRI technology in support of customer missions. ESRI software is already a key component of existing GIS analyst software suites that allow analysts to collect, integrate, visualize and analyze geospatial data, including commercial imagery and standard government cartographic products. These suites provide intelligence to personnel in the field, including warfighters and first responders. . . . Peter S. Garcia has been named CFO of Nanosys Inc., a Palo Alto, Calif., developer of nanotechnology-based products for computing, optoelectronics, communications, energy, defense and the life and physical sciences. Garcia was formerly senior vice president and CFO of Nuvelo Inc., a biopharmaceutical company and was previously CFO of Novacept Inc., IntraBiotics Pharmaceuticals and Dendreon Corp.