News Briefs (March 17, 2006)

Luxtera Inc. of Carlsbad, Calif., a fabless semiconductor company, has named Edward P. Holtaway as its new senior vice president of operations, effective immediately. The company said Holtaway, a 26-year industry veteran, will oversee Luxtera's high-volume production of integrated CMOS photonics chips used in optical communications. Holtaway formerly served in numerous positions at Cymer. . . . Thales, an international electronics company serving the aerospace, security and defense markets, has named Allan Cameron chairman and CEO of Thales' US operations in Alexandria, Va. Effective April 1, Cameron replaces retiring Chairman and CEO Lawrence Cavaiola. A dual US and UK citizen, Cameron most recently served as managing director of Thales UK's naval business and vice president of Thales' global naval warship prime business. He joined Thales from Bath Iron Works, where he was president. . . . The University of Rochester in Rochester, N.Y., will recognize university trustee and alumnus Robert B. Goergen's support by naming its new $37.7 million, 100,000-sq-ft biomedical engineering-optics building in his honor, President Joel Seligman announced. Goergen is chairman and CEO of Blyth Inc. of Greenwich, Conn. He has pledged $10 million to the project; he previously donated $5 million to renovate Rochester's athletic center (named for him in 2000) and endowed the Goergen Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, awarded annually since 1997. The new building will house research facilities, teaching labs, state-of-the-art demonstration halls, a 155-seat lecture hall and the new Center for Institute Ventures.