MOSCOW, September 7 (RIA Novosti) - Leonid Melamed, head of the Alemar Investment Financial Corporation has been appointed chief of Russia's nanotechnology corporation, a first deputy prime minister said Friday.
Russia's Science and Education Minister Andrei Fursenko has been appointed head of the corporation's supervising council, Sergei Ivanov said.
Leonid Melamed, 46, was among the founders of the Alemar Investment Financial Corporation, which owned a large stake of Novosibirskenergo, a Siberia-based power-engineering and electrification company. From January 2000 to June 2004 he occupied the post of first UES deputy CEO.
Apart from Melamed and Fursenko, the supervising council comprises 13 officials, including Russian Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref, Russian Minister of Industry and Energy, Viktor Khristenko, chief of the Russian Development Bank, Vladimir Dmitriyev, Unified Energy System (UES) CEO, Anatoly Chubais, and the Director General of Sukhoi Aircraft Military Industrial Complex, Mikhail Pogosyan.
In late July, President Vladimir Putin signed a federal law to establish the Russian Nanotechnologies Corporation.
Nanoscience, in which matter is manipulated on an atomic scale, is believed by scientists to have potentially far-reaching applications in diverse fields including construction, energy storage and production, the treatment of diseases, and agriculture.
The Russian corporation's functions will include interaction between government, business, and scientists on implementing state policy in nanotechnology and the nano-industry, and providing organizational and financial assistance to programs, and the selection of projects.
Ivanov, who is in charge of high-technology development, said in June the government would allocate 200 billion rubles ($7.7 billion) to develop nanotechnology until 2015.
