IBM Research is a community of thinkers dedicated to addressing some of the world’s most complex problems and challenging opportunities for the benefit of all.
What does IBM Research do?
IBM Research is one of the world’s largest and most influential corporate research labs, with more than 3,000 researchers in 12 labs located across six continents. We play the long game, investing now in tomorrow's breakthroughs. Watson, the world's first cognitive system, is the fruit of over 50 years of IBM research in artificial intelligence. Today, it forms a core part of IBM's business.
Their scientists are charting the future of artificial intelligence, breakthroughs like quantum computing, how blockchain will reshape the enterprise and much more. They are dedicated to applying AI and science to industry challenges, whether it’s discovering a new way for doctors to help patients, teaming with environmentalists to clean up our waterways or enabling retailers to personalize customer service.
Facts about IBM Research
Locations
For more than seven decades, IBM Research has defined the future of information technology. Today, they have more than 3,000 researchers in 12 labs located across six continents.
Distinctions
Scientists from IBM Research have produced six Nobel Laureates, 10 U.S. National Medals of Technology, five U.S. National Medals of Science, six Turing Awards, 19 inductees in the National Academy of Sciences and 20 inductees into the U.S. National Inventors Hall of Fame.
Patents
IBM Research enables IBM to produce more breakthroughs than any company in the industry, averaging more than 22 patents per day (in 2016). Sustained by this pace of innovation, IBM has topped the list of annual U.S. patent recipients for 24 consecutive years, with 8,088 new patents in 2016 alone.
History
In 1945, Thomas J. Watson Sr. established the Watson Scientific Computing Laboratory, at Columbia University, where a handful of scientists used machines previously dedicated to accounting to investigate everything from atomic fission to the orbit of the moon. This lab was the first corporate laboratory anywhere dedicated to pure scientific research and the first outpost of IBM Research.
