Semiconductor Industry Pioneer Dr. Sass Somekh Joins Nanosys Board of Directors

Palo Alto, CA - (January 13, 2004). Nanosys, Inc., a leader in nanotechnology-enabled systems, announced today that Dr. Sass Somekh joined the company’s board of directors. Dr. Somekh was formerly an executive vice president and a board member of Applied Materials, the world's largest supplier of products and services to the global semiconductor industry.

Dr. Somekh has been a vital contributor to Applied Materials technical leadership and played a significant role in the growth of the company over the last 23 years. He has been responsible for the development and business success of several of the company’s breakthrough products. Dr. Somekh is a co-inventor of the Precision 5000, the first semiconductor-manufacturing system to be placed in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institution. He has also received the Semiconductor Equipment and Materials Institute’s SEMI Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his many contributions to the industry. Dr. Somekh is also a director of Synopsys, Inc.

“During the last 30 years, Dr. Somekh has been extremely successful in identifying and developing key technologies responsible for catalyzing the rapid growth of the semiconductor industry,“ commented Calvin Chow, Nanosys CEO, “His unique combination of technical vision, practical implementation, and business acumen will be extremely valuable to Nanosys as we continue to develop our products and technologies towards the growth and evolution of the nanotechnology industry.”

“I see tremendous potential in the growing field of nanotechnology, with Nanosys clearly at the fore-front,” commented Dr. Somekh, “One of Nanosys’ many strengths is their ability to leverage practical commercial approaches towards developing their comprehensive and expansive estate of technology. This has allowed them to effectively address both near and long term high value product opportunities. I look forward to contributing my background and expertise to the company“.

About Nanosys
Nanosys is an industry leading nanotechnology company developing nano-enabled systems based on a platform technology incorporating patent-protected, high performance, and highly integrated inorganic semiconductor nanostructures. These systems are being applied into major industries that include energy, defense, electronics, healthcare and information technology. Initial applications include high performance large area electronics, optically active systems including lightweight high-efficiency photovoltaics, memory systems, and novel nanostructured surface coatings. Nanosys is capitalized with over $55M in capital from top tier venture investors including ARCH Ventures, Polaris Ventures, and Venrock Associates, leading international funds - United Overseas Bank, Chaio Tung Bank and China Development Industrial Bank, key life science and nanotechnology funds - CW Group, Harris and Harris, Lux Capital and Prospect Ventures and major strategic investors - HB Fuller, Kodak, In-Q-Tel, Quanta Computer, and SAIC. Nanosys has several product oriented collaborations with companies that include Matsushita Electric Works, In-Q-Tel and SAIC. The company has established a broad intellectual property position in the field of nanotechnology that includes exclusive licenses from world leading nanotechnology centers. Nanosys’s scientific founders represent the leading pioneers and developers of the field of nanotechnology and its management team has successfully created numerous new platform technology based companies.