RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. - Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) announced today the appointment of Betsy Weitzman as Executive Director of the Focus Center Research Program (FCRP) effective January 1, 2006. The FCRP is a cooperative initiative among members of the U.S. semiconductor equipment, materials, software and services industry, and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), through the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) that is designed to expand long-range, pre-competitive, microelectronics research at U.S. universities.

Ms. Weitzman replaces Simon Thomas, who is retiring after serving in this position for the past 4 years. Larry Sumney, Chief Executive Officer of SRC, said, "Simon has done an outstanding job of managing the FCRP and we wish him all the best. Betsy Weitzman brings excellent credentials and a wealth of experience to this job. Her track record in forging highly leveraged research programs with federal and state governments makes her an ideal addition to our executive team. We're looking forward to her leadership in this important national research initiative."

Ms. Weitzman has served as Technology Research Director for the Technology Solutions Organization at Freescale Semiconductor Inc, a global leader in the design and manufacture of embedded semiconductors for the automotive, consumer, industrial, networking and wireless markets. She has also served as Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at SEMATECH as a Motorola assignee to SEMATECH. Prior to joining Motorola, she held numerous engineering and management positions within the Microelectronics Division and the T.J. Watson Research Center at International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) where she started her career.

About the FCRP: The FCRP is managed by the Microelectronics Advanced Research Corporation (MARCO); a subsidiary of SRC that manages research aimed at ensuring continued U.S. leadership in the technology revolution.

About the SRC: Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC), based in Research Triangle Park, N.C., operates globally to provide competitive advantage to its member companies as the world's premier university research management consortium delivering relevantly educated technical talent and early research results. Learn more about SRC at .