The Colorado Photonics Industry Association Presents 2006 Annual Awards; InPhase Technologies and Particle Measuring Systems, Inc. Honored

The Colorado Photonics Industry Association (CPIA) will present the organization's annual awards for contributions to advancing the photonics industry in Colorado at its quarterly meeting on Tuesday, November 14.

(PRWEB) November 11, 2006 -- The Colorado Photonics Industry Association (CPIA) will present the organization's annual awards for contributions to advancing the photonics industry in Colorado at its quarterly meeting on Tuesday, November 14.

The Photonics Innovator of the Year award goes to InPhase Technologies of Longmont. InPhase Technologies was formed as a spin-off from Lucent Technologies in 2000. The company has successfully developed the technologies for holographic optical storage, and is now commercializing holographic optical storage drives and media. In September 2006 InPhase demonstrated the world's first commercialized holographic storage product. The award will be presented to Lisa Dhar, one of the founders.

The Photonics Company of the Year will be presented to Particle Measuring Systems, Inc. of Boulder. PMS was founded in 1972 as a developer and manufacturer of instruments for measuring extremely small particles. It has since grown to be a major provider of instruments to the semiconductor, pharmaceutical, aerospace, biotechnology and automotive industries. The award will be presented to Paul Kelly, President/CEO, and John Mitchell, V.P. of Marketing

In addition, CPIA will give its Founder's Award to Gary Horvath, Managing Director at the Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado. Gary helped create CPIA in 1997 and has been continuously active on the CPIA board since its inception.

The awards will be presented at the CPIA quarterly meeting around 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, November 14, 2006, at the Discovery Learning Center at the University of Colorado. The center is in the Engineering Center at the southwest corner of Colorado Avenue and Regent Drive.

About CPIA

CPIA (Colorado Photonics Industry Association) is a volunteer-driven, not-for-profit organization dedicated to enhancing the photonics environment in Colorado and globally. By uniting industrial, academic and governmental objectives, CPIA encourages cooperation, collaboration and partnering to enable growth and expansion. Founded in 1997, CPIA now includes more than 80 members representing strong manufacturing, research, technology, development and governmental programs. With more than 260 organizations and companies in the state employing more than 28,000 people who were paid an estimated $2.2 billion in wages, the photonics industry is a multi-faceted, vibrant, and important part of Colorado. For more information download the Colorado Photonics directory at www.coloradophotonics.org, or contact the association at cpia @ coloraphotonics.org.

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