UCSB lab gets $15M from Dow Chemical Co.
UC Santa Barbara’s Materials Research Laboratory has received up to $15 million from Dow Chemical Co. to establish a new institute to study materials that can further technological discovery. The recent five-year gift comes just weeks after the research lab received $20 million from the National Science Foundation to fund its studies through at least Read More →
Windset Farms readies first tomato crop
Windset Farms’ 3 million-square-foot greenhouse — one of the largest hothouse tomato facilities in the United States — is up and running in Santa Maria. The first crop of tomatoes will be ready for picking in mid-October, Windset President Steven Newell said on Friday. The tomatoes were planted in August in what Newell calls “Greenhouse Read More →
Guest op-eds: Tech execs remember Steve Jobs
Editor’s Note: The Business Times asked technology executives in the region to share their thoughts on the death of Steve Jobs, the Apple co-founder who died Oct. 5 at age 56. To contribute, email [email protected]. We’ll post more remembrances as they become available. Click here to read a column by Technology Editor Stephen Nellis on Read More →
Transphorm gets $3.6M grant
Transphorm, the Goleta-based energy efficiency firm backed by $63 million from Google and other investors, has received a $3.6 million federal grant to improve solar panels. Transphorm’s technology uses a semiconducting material called gallium nitride to drastically reduce heat waste in electronic systems. The grant from the U.S. Department of Energy went to Transphorm in Read More →
Vitesse slashes workforce, dims sales outlook
Vitesse Semiconductor, the Ventura County chipmaker rocked by a stock-options scandal in 2006, has laid off 10 percent of its workforce and shuttered one of its Camarillo facilities. Vitesse disclosed the pink slips in a regulatory filing Oct. 3. The company said it ended its lease on facilities at 4721 Calle Carga and terminated 10 Read More →
Forecast: Crummy, with a slight chance of worse
The professional services and hospitality industries are leading the South Coast’s private-sector job creation, with each adding about 1,000 jobs since the recession ended.
