The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT; Cambridge, MA) and Nanovation Technologies have formed a partnership creating a new research center within the MIT Materials Processing Center. Nanovation is funding the center for six years for $90 million to conduct basic research on photonic, microphotonic, and nanophotonic devices, circuits, and systems for communications. Robert Tatum, president and CEO of Nanovation (Maimi, FL) and physics professor David Litster, MIT vice president of research, will oversee the collaboration. In separate news, Nanovation has formed an alliance with Cronos Integrated Microsystems (Research Triangle Park, NC) to develop a family of optical networking products that combine the microelectromechanical technology developed by Cronos with Nanovation's microcavity and photonic waveguide technologies.—W. Conard Holton