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Block Engineering Names Dr. Petros Kotidis as Chief Executive Officer Marlborough, MA - June 25, 2007 Block Engineering, LLC, a leading supplier of FT-IR spectrometers for defense and commercial markets, has named Petros A. Kotidis, PhD as its Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Daniel J. Cavicchio, Jr., President and Co-Owner of Spectra Optics, the parent company of Block Engineering, commented, "I am delighted that Dr. Kotidis has decided to join us as our new CEO of Block Engineering. His leadership skills, market knowledge, innovative thinking and passion for success provide a solid foundation for Block Engineering to expand the sales of its current products and capitalize on its growth opportunities." Prior to joining Block, Dr. Kotidis served as Vice President of Business Development of Axsun Technologies, a company with a unique miniaturization optical packaging technology. Dr. Kotidis created the new vision and direction of the company towards miniaturized, high-performance spectrometers for markets beyond telecommunications, such as pharmaceutical manufacturing, chemical processing, carpet recycling and homeland security. Prior to Axsun, Dr. Kotidis was the Director of Strategic Technologies and Ventures at Nortel Networks, where he was responsible for evaluating corporate level strategic business directions in the optical telecommunications markets. Prior to Nortel, he directed the New Product and Business Ventures Group at Textron Systems Corporation and successfully brought to market several laser-based products for industrial process control. Dr. Kotidis holds PhD and MS degrees in Aeronautics from MIT, where he also minored in Management & Finance at the Sloan School of Management, and BS in Mechanical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece. He has been awarded 14 patents in laser-based, ultrasonic and spectroscopic devices and applications. "Block is a very exciting company with great people, strong technological base and customer-proven products. I am pleased to become part of the company and help accelerate its growth and market traction," commented Dr. Kotidis. "Block's next generation MEMS-based FT-IR technology will revolutionize the field of high-performance, miniaturized gas sensors and will become the leading product in the fast growing field of mobile, outside-the-lab instrumentation." About Block Engineering: Block Engineering, a division of Spectra Optics, has more that 50 years of experience making custom and standard chemical detection spectrometers, primarily based on FT-IR technology, for a number of government and commercial customers. Block Engineering is teamed with the Northrop Grumman Corporation to market the Mobile Chemical Agent Detection system (MCAD). MCAD is a chemical detection system for detection of remote chemical attacks and is used to protect soldiers on the battlefield, military facilities or in homeland defense. Block has also just introduced it PORTHOSTM man portable spectrometer system, which has detection capabilities comparable to the MCAD. The company, through its Block MEMS, LLC affiliate, has also recently won a major army contract to develop a miniaturized FT-IR chemical detector using microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology. This new product will be called "ChemPen" and will be the size of a fountain pen. A working prototype should be available by 2008. The company is located in Marlborough, Massachusetts, USA. More information can be viewed at www.blockeng.com. # # # |