IBM Fellows of 2013 Include Experts in Data Analytics, Supercomputers

by Darryl K. Taft

In 1963, the IBM Fellows program was launched by then-CEO Thomas Watson Jr. to serve a specific purpose beyond recognizing technical excellence. The company’s most brilliant scientists and engineers were to be given the freedom and resources to break new ground in areas that would have a meaningful impact on society. In the past 50 years, IBM Fellows—a group that includes five Nobel Prize winners—have fulfilled Watson’s vision for the program. IBM Fellows have led some of the company’s most important technical breakthroughs—including the Fortran computing language; the systems that helped put the first man on the moon; and the Scanning Tunneling Microscope, the first instrument to enable routine and widespread imaging of molecules and atoms.

Since Watson Jr. introduced the program, 246 IBMers have joined the distinctive roster. Entire industries have sprung from the minds of IBM Fellows. Specific achievements by IBM Fellows include the following:
• IBM PC;
• IBM Selectric typewriter;
• world’s most powerful and most power-efficient supercomputer (Blue Gene);
• computer that defeated then world chess champion Gary Kasparov (Deep Blue);
• first instrument able to image atoms (Scanning Tunnel Microscope);
• world’s first disk drive (RAMAC);
• most widely used computer language (Fortran);
• computing system that is able to process spoken natural language queries in real time; and
• architectural basis for most high-performance workstations and servers (RISC).

On April 3, IBM Chairman, President and CEO Ginni Rometty announced eight new IBM Fellows. “As we have for half a century, IBM is today honoring its most outstanding technologists and their contributions to computing and society,” Rometty said. “Like all IBM Fellows, members of the class of 2013 are recognized leaders in the global technical community. In 2013, this leadership will focus on IBM growth markets, where each of this year’s fellows will serve as an ambassador and resource to a different country.” These countries include Australia, Brazil, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Morocco, New Zealand, Nigeria and South Africa.

Neil Bartlett, IBM Software Group, Toronto, is a leader in risk analytics, particularly as applied to the financial and insurance industries. His innovative work in moving risk analysis from a batch-oriented to a real-time model that worked on individual stock trades had a revolutionary effect on the industry. Bartlett joined IBM in 2011, when IBM acquired Algorithmics, where he was CTO. He is expanding his scope to explore risk applications in IBM’s overall analytics and big data strategies, with implications to a wide range of industries. Bartlett will serve as technology ambassador to Brazil.

Jon Casey, Systems and Technology Group, Hopewell Junction, N.Y., has been a strategic and tactical innovator in semiconductor packaging and chip package interaction technologies, which have become prominent in processing data in today’s connected world. He has contributed to IBM’s development of the industry’s highest-performing organic packaging systems. Over his career, he has done groundbreaking work in developing and implementing multilayer ceramic packaging technologies— including the High Performance Glass Ceramic crystallization mechanism, binder removal catalysts, raw material development and green sheet fabrication—that have helped IBM systems lead the industry for more than 20 years. Casey will serve as technology ambassador to Ethiopia.

Monty Denneau, IBM Research, Yorktown Heights, N.Y., is a pioneer in high-performance computer design innovations that have resulted in new approaches to managing big data, with advances in machine architecture, processors, networks, chips and system design. His work was instrumental in the development of IBM’s earliest multicore processors, laying the foundation for today’s large-scale parallel system architecture. Denneau is a technical leader and innovator on architecture development for IBM’s most ambitious supercomputing projects. Denneau will serve as technology ambassador to Australia and New Zealand.

Jason McGee, IBM Software Group, Durham, N.C., has been instrumental in establishing IBM as the leader in cloud technologies, Java-based application server middleware and application-aware virtualization. He led the development of critical technologies in WebSphere Application Server, including the Web container and the watershed version 5 system design. McGee’s innovations in using application awareness have helped the application server move into the realm of virtualization and cloud computing. Those innovations are now being applied to expert integrated systems with his leadership of the IBM PureApplication System. McGee will serve as technology ambassador to Egypt.

John Ponzo, IBM Research, Yorktown Heights, N.Y., has shaped the future of IBM’s business in mobile computing and delivered innovative products and services to Web-browser and server-based standards. Ponzo led the development of key software technologies, including HTML/JavaScript runtime libraries, XML middleware, Web services runtime libraries, Eclipse Web integration and Web 2.0 enterprise collaboration services. He also authored the “Enterprise Mobile” and the “Mobile First” theses that are the cornerstone of IBM’s mobile strategy and execution. Ponzo will serve as technology ambassador to Kenya.

Heike Riel, IBM Research, Zurich, has made seminal contributions to the science and technology of nanoscale electronics and the promise it holds for applications in IT, medicine and consumer goods. Her breakthrough achievements include advances in semiconducting nanowires for devices beyond conventional CMOS technology, in molecular electronics for future nanoscale switches and memory applications, and in organic LEDs as a disruptive display technology. As the key scientist and leader in these efforts, Riel has received prestigious recognition, including the 2013 International Award for Research in Germany from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Riel will serve as technology ambassador to South Africa.

Dinesh Verma, IBM Research, Yorktown Heights, N.Y., is a leading researcher in mobile computing and computer communications networks, particularly in the area of IT and wireless convergence. His significant contributions include an optimizer for WiFi networks, enabling edge applications for cellular networks and leadership in network science. Verma has made seminal contributions in the scientific disciplines of network quality of service and policy-based networking. Verma will serve as technology ambassador to Nigeria.

Chandu Visweswariah, Systems and Technology Group, Hopewell Junction, N.Y., is a pioneer in circuit analysis and optimization and the inventor of statistical timing, directly impacting technologies that generate and manage data. He has developed techniques used in every IBM chip design—including formal circuit tuning and gate-level timing sign-off. Visweswariah is a widely recognized industry leader with 68 patents, research published in more than 100 journals and numerous awards such as Electronic Design News’ Innovator of the Year. Visweswariah will serve as technology ambassador to Morocco.