WOODBURY, N.Y. -- Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: VECO - News) today announced that it has established a China Nanotechnology Center facility (CNC) in Beijing, China. The facility will be staffed with local scientists and engineers and equipped with Veeco's latest Atomic Force Microscope (AFM), Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM) products and other advanced nanotechnology application modules. The CNC will be jointly operated with the Institute of Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Day to day operations will be managed by Oliver Yeh, Veeco's newly appointed General Manager for China. The CAS is a national institution for scientific research and promotes original scientific innovation and integration of key technologies. Institutes organized under the CAS auspices perform first-class research and open up new directions of research, in particular in the area of nanometer sciences. As published in CMP Cientifica's The X Report, Professor Ma, Chinese Ministry of Science, recently stated that China sees the field of nanotechnology as one of the most important fields and intends to set up a national nano infrastructure and research centre. The Chinese policy involved recruiting leading scientists, developing IP protection and incentives and building international cooperation. China has budgeted 2 billion yuan (approximately $240 million) in less than five years from the central government and approximately 2-3 billion yuan (approximately $240 -360 million) from local governments. According to Professor Ma in this report, there are already 50 universities, 20 institutes and 100 enterprises focused on furthering nanotechnology. "China is experiencing rapid growth in nanotechnology, R&D and industrial applications. The newly established CNTC is evidence of Veeco's continuing commitment to our R&D customers in China and the Asia Pacific region," commented Michael Weiss, Vice President and General Manager of Veeco's Asian operations. "We will have highly trained scientists working on leading edge AFMs and STMs to further advance state-of-the-art nanotechnology and to broaden its numerous applications in science and industry." Veeco Instruments Inc.