Honors for Hispanic professor

Hispanic Engineer and Information Technology Magazine named Cristina Amon of Carnegie Mellon University one of America's 50 most important Hispanics in technology and business. Amon is the Raymond J. Lane distinguished professor of mechanical engineering at CMU and director of the Institute for Complex Engineered Systems. Amon's research helped pioneer design development of portable electronics, such as laptop computers.

Funds for nanotechnology

The Pittsburgh Technology Council was awarded $200,000 in state funds to establish the Pennsylvania NanoMaterials Commercialization Center. The center initially will be housed at the Tech Council. It will bring together local companies, including Alcoa, PPG, Bayer MaterialScience and U.S. Steel, to partner with universities including Carnegie Mellon and Penn State to develop and commercialize nanotechnology products. The Ben Franklin Technology Development Authority granted the funds.

Also in business ...

The retail price of regular unleaded gasoline jumped 4.4 cents last week to average $2.153 per gallon nationwide, the Energy Department reported. Pump prices are highest on the West Coast, averaging $2.318 per gallon, and cheapest on the Gulf Coast, averaging $2.079 per gallon ... Timothy M. Klusas has been named president of The Marketing Alliance Inc., effective next Monday. He previously was a manager in corporate development and planning for Eaton Corp.