Essex Corp., a Columbia, Md.-based developer of optical engineering, processing and communications technology, announced it has received $2 million in contracts for work to be performed over the next year. The awards are for the expansion of its current engineering research in radar signal and image processing, and for two research initiatives: to create a technology roadmap for optical components for a government agency, and to apply hyperfine wavelength division multiplexing to achieve privacy in an all-optical network.   . . .   L-3 Communications' Interstate Electronics Corp. (IEC) division, based in Anaheim, Calif., has been awarded a $10.4 million contract by the Space and Missile Systems Center at Los Angeles Air Force Base to reduce risk and advance technology for the development of modernized military global positioning system user equipment (MUE). IEC has been a long-term supplier of critical test instrumentation and missile tracking systems for the US Navy's fleet ballistic missile weapons systems, including the Trident submarine.   . . .   Veeco Instruments Inc., in conjunction with the North American Molecular Beam Epitaxy (NAMBE) and international MBE organizations, has initiated an award to recognize innovators in the field of MBE. The $3,000 award will be presented at the annual meetings of both organizations. NAMBE is now soliciting nominations for the first MBE Innovator Award, to be presented at the 2003 North American Conference on Molecular Beam Epitaxy, to be held Sept. 29-Oct. 2 in Keystone, Colo. The deadline for nominations is August 25. For nomination forms and details, visit: www.boulder.nist.gov/div815/nambeweb2.html