The Centre's opening was celebrated with an event hosted by Ireland's Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, T.D., and Bill O'Shea, president Bell Labs, and executive vice president Corporate Strategy and Business Development.

Led by Lou Manzione, the Centre's Executive Director, researchers at the facility will focus on advancements in product realization, engineering, manufacturing and value and supply chain techniques, tools and technologies. Bell Labs' researchers will work in collaboration with nine leading Irish universities, technical institutes and the Irish government to advance the fields of product realization and supply chain technologies. One example of such work is today's announcement that the Centre will head a new research project that aims to use nano-textured surfaces to solve the extreme thermal management challenges of advanced electronic and photonic systems.

Already, the Centre has produced results, including: four patent applications underway with Irish universities; collaborations with corporate research organizations on projects in areas such as nanotechnology, electronic devices and mathematics research; more than a dozen visits from Irish faculty members to Bell Labs locations in the United States; and technical exchange visits here in Ireland with more than 40 Bell Labs scientists and engineers from locations around the world.

"At the very heart of Bell Labs is our mission for creating knowledge," said O'Shea. "This endeavor in Ireland will not only build another chapter in Bell Labs' rich tradition of knowledge and innovation creation, but, more importantly, will greatly benefit Irish industry, academia and its people, by establishing new research programs that will directly address the core foundations for modern global competitiveness."

The Centre also unveiled a new museum that commemorates Bell Labs' contributions to telecommunications technology, highlighting specific innovations in wired, wireless and optical communications. Exhibits include replicas of the first transistor and the Telstar communications satellite, the earliest FAX machine and the first cordless phone.

The Centre supports Lucent's global efforts to position research and development efforts close to our customers and leverage employee talent in local markets around the world. Bell Labs anticipates that the centre will employ approximately 40 researchers when it is fully staffed, adding to Lucent's current total of 575 employees in Ireland. At the same time, it will complement existing Bell Labs development efforts in Nuremberg, Germany; Madrid, Spain; Bydgoszcz, Poland; Swindon, England; and Hilversum, the Netherlands. Lucent has in total about 5,000 employees across Europe; and is represented in all of the major European countries.

"Bell Labs is admired throughout the world for its groundbreaking achievements in science and research that have truly shaped the way we live," said Mike Devane, managing director for Lucent in Ireland. "Locating a Bell Labs Research Centre in Ireland reflects the confidence we have in this country and further underpins Lucent's investment in Ireland."

About the Bell Labs centre in Ireland

The Bell Labs centre in Dublin will account for more than euro 43 million of the investments being made jointly by Bell Labs and IDA Ireland. It acts as a corporate research headquarters that carries out its own programme of R&D and has a corporate mandate as a centre-of-excellence for value-chain-driven research. It researches and delivers in-depth knowledge and advanced technologies for the development of new product designs and manufacturing strategies for Lucent Technologies, a global leader in communications systems, services and software. The centre concentrates on several strategic areas -- the creation of highly configurable hardware and software platforms for quicker time-to-market, supply chain flexibility and lowered development costs; manufacturing and engineering research in photonics, electronics and wireless technologies and systems; and research on advanced value-chain modelling and optimisation for next generation manufacturing operations.

About Bell Labs and Lucent Technologies

Bell Labs is the leading source of new communications technologies. It has generated more than 30,000 patents since 1925 and has played a pivotal role in inventing or perfecting key communications technologies, including transistors, digital networking and signal processing, lasers and fiber-optic communications systems, communications satellites, cellular telephony, electronic switching of calls, touch-tone dialing, and modems. Bell Labs scientists have received six Nobel Prizes in Physics, nine U.S. National Medals of Science and eight U.S. National Medals of Technology(R). For more information about Bell Labs, visit its Web site at http://www.bell-labs.com/. Lucent Technologies designs and delivers the systems, services and software that drive next-generation communications networks. Backed by Bell Labs research and development, Lucent uses its strengths in mobility, optical, software, data and voice networking technologies, as well as services, to create new revenue-generating opportunities for its customers, while enabling them to quickly deploy and better manage their networks. Lucent's customer base includes communications service providers, governments and enterprises worldwide. For more information on Lucent Technologies, which has headquarters in Murray Hill, N.J., USA, visit http://www.lucent.com/.

Source: Lucent Technologies

CONTACT: Mary Ward 908-582-7658, maryward@lucent.com, or Dick Muldoon,
+1-908-582-1616, cell: +1-908-930-9391, both of Lucent Technologies

Web site: http://www.lucent.com/