Meet The Fellows
learn more about the class of ’13
GO INSIDE THE INVENTIVE MIND
Follow along as we share the passion and anecdotes of IBMers who helped send people to the moon, hatched trillions of barcodes, launched the computer industry and then even taught one to play Jeopardy! They’re just some of the innovations we’ve been working on to build a smarter planet.
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Sometimes the greatest scientific breakthroughs happen by chance. Dropping a piece of silicon into hydrofluoric acid, for instance, allowed IBM Fellow Bernard Meyerson to discover the silicon germanium chip. The rest, as they say, is history, as SiGe influences how our WiFi, cell phones and GPS devices work today.
In what was called the “smallest publicity stunt ever,” IBM Fellow Don Eigler arranged atoms to spell the letters “IBM” in 1989. This innovation marked the first time we could move individual atoms—a huge innovation for really small science.
Watson, and his uncanny ability to answer anything from trivia to critical medical inquiries, came from a patented IBM innovation.
(Thanks for the photo Stefania!)
Low on cash? Out of stamps? Want to skip to the gate? Good thing for self-service kiosks, another world’s first from IBM.
(Thanks for the photo, Joy!)
Gone, but not forgotten. Time recording machines came from a patented IBM innovation.
(Thanks for the photo, Heidi!)
That little, one-finger, laptop doohickey (or as we like to call it, a TrackPoint pointing stick) came from a patented IBM innovation.
(Thanks for the photo Dimitri!)
From StarWars’ Planet Mustafar to StarTrek’s Planet Genesis, hyper-realistic computer animated graphics came from fractal geometry, a patented IBM innovation.
“As a huge fan of photography and admiring Benoit Mandelbrot’s genius since college, I believe fractals are one of the most brilliant depiction of intelligence. Sadly we lost him last year, but we will never lose his work!”
(Cool screensaver. Thanks for the photo, Silvia!)
Space Shuttle Endeavour’s orbiter avionics data processing system came from a patented IBM innovation.
(Thanks for the photo, Britt!)
Game on! The microprocessors in the Sony PlayStation came from a patented IBM innovation.
(Thanks for the photo, Tommy!)
Flex circuits, the bendable backbone for next-gen smart phones, biomedical devices and wearable gadgets came from an IBM innovation.
(Thanks for the photo and video, Stephen!)
