H-P Names Research Chief

Hewlett-Packard(HPQ Quote) named a new director for its research division Wednesday.

The tech giant said that Prith Banerjee, dean of the college of engineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago, will head up H-P Labs as of Aug. 1.

Banerjee, 46, succeeds Richard Lampman, who announced his plans to retire in December after seven years of leading H-P Labs -- and 35 years with H-P.

According to H-P, Banerjee has been granted several patents and has research interests that include parallel and distributed computing, compilers and computer-aided design. He will report to Shane Robison, H-P's chief strategy officer.

"Technology is at the core of H-P, and Prith's mandate is to ensure that H-P Labs continues to be one of the world's leading research organizations," said Robison in a statement.

H-P labs serves as the company's central research division devoted to scientific advances, although it accounts for only a portion of the $3.6 billion that H-P spent on research and development last year. In January, H-P Labs announced it was opening a facility in St. Petersburg, Russia, the Lab's sixth overseas outpost.

Shares of H-P were up 2 cents to $42.95 in extended trading.