Daily News Briefs

Michael Townsend was named president of Polytec Inc., a Tustin, Calif., provider of laser-based measurement systems, including precision scanning and single-point laser vibrometers. Townsend was president and CEO of Dover Instrument Corp., a Massachusetts company specializing in precision motion systems for semiconductor and disk drive manufacturing equipment, from 1999 through 2002. Polytec said Townsend will continue the expansion of its business in North America. Polytec PI reorganized in July to become Polytec Inc., completing the separation of Polytec GmbH and Physik Instrumente GmbH (PI), its parent businesses in Germany. . . . Agilent Technologies Inc. has donated cDNA microarray kits valued at $66,000 to Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), which said it will use them to improve and develop undergraduate and graduate courses in genomics and bioinformatics. Commonly used in the research of cancer and other diseases, a microarray is a 1" x 3" glass slide printed with thousands of DNA probes, each of which corresponds to a unique gene. They are used to identify genes potentially involved in disease, to research new therapeutics and to find prognostic and diagnostic indicators that might facilitate a more personalized approach to medical care. . . . BOC Edwards, a Wilmington, Mass., supplier of materials, equipment and services to the microelectronics industry, announced it will supply fluorine gas to Hynix Semiconductor Inc. for its 300-mm semiconductor manufacturing facility in Ichon, South Korea. Fluorine is being used increasingly for cleaning chemical vapor deposition chambers used in the manufacture of 300-mm semiconductor wafers.