The Thomas J. Watson Research Center is the headquarters for the IBM Research Division. For other uses, see IBM (disambiguation) and Big Blue. ...

The center is on three sites, with the main laboratory in Yorktown Heights, New York, 45 miles north of New York City, a building in Hawthorne, New York, and offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Yorktown Heights is an unincorporated hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) located in the town of Yorktown in Westchester County, New York. ... Hawthorne is an unincorporated hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) located in the town of Mount Pleasant in Westchester County, New York. ... Location in Massachusetts Coordinates: , Country United States State Massachusetts County Middlesex County Settled 1630 Incorporated 1636 Government  - Type Mayor-council city  - Mayor Kenneth Reeves (D) Area  - City  7. ...

The research center is named for both Thomas J. Watson Sr and Thomas J. Watson Jr, who led IBM as president and CEO respectively from 1915 (when it was known as CTR) to 1971. Thomas John Watson, Sr. ... Thomas J. Watson, Jr. ... Year 1915 (MCMXV) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday[1] of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... Year 1971 (MCMLXXI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar) of the 1971 Gregorian calendar. ...

The research is intended to improve hardware (physical sciences and semiconductors research), services (business modelling, consulting, and operations research), software (programming languages, security, speech recognition, and data management), and systems (operating systems and server design), as well as to extend the mathematics and science that support the information technology industry. For other uses, see Hardware (disambiguation). ... Services are: plural of service Tertiary sector of industry IRC services Web services the name of a first-class cricket team in India This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Computer software (or simply software) refers to one or more computer programs and data held in the storage of a computer for some purpose. ... Systems is an annual information and telecommunications trade fair in Munich, Bavaria, Germany Categories: | | ...

The center was founded at Columbia University in 1945 as the Watson Scientific Computing Laboratory, on 116th Street in New York, expanding to 115th Street in 1953. The headquarters were moved to Yorktown Heights in 1957, with a new lab designed by architect Eero Saarinen completed in 1961, with the 115th Street site closing in 1970. IBM later donated the New York City buildings to Columbia University; they are now known as the Casa Hispanica and Watson Hall. The lab expanded to Hawthorne in 1984. Columbia University is a private research university in the United States and a member of the prestigious Ivy League. ... Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar). ... Year 1953 (MCMLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Saarinens Gateway Arch frames The Old Courthouse, which sits at the heart of the city of Saint Louis, near the rivers edge. ...

Notable staff has included the mathematicians Benoît Mandelbrot, Shmuel Winograd, Alan Hoffman, Don Coppersmith, Mike Shub, Gregory Chaitin, the inventor Robert Dennard, author Clifford A. Pickover, computer scientists Frances E. Allen, John Cocke, Stuart Feldman and Irene Greif, the 1990 Economics Nobel Prize winner, Harry Markowitz, and physicist Llewellyn Thomas. Benoît B. Mandelbrot, PhD, (born November 20, 1924) is a Franco-American mathematician, best known as the father of fractal geometry. Benoît Mandelbrot was born in Poland, but his family moved to France when he was a child; he is a dual French and American citizen and was... Shmuel Winograd is a computer scientist, noted for his work on fast algorithms for arithmetic, and in particular for the algorithm known as the Coppersmith-Winograd algorithm. ... Gregory John Chaitin (born 1947) is an Argentine-American mathematician and computer scientist. ... Robert Dennard (Born Terrell, Texas, USA in 1932-) is an American electrical engineer and inventor. ... Clifford A. Pickover is an author, editor, and columnist in the fields of science, mathematics, and science fiction. ... Frances E. Allen (born c. ... John Cocke (May 30, 1925 - July 16, 2002) was an American computer scientist recognised for his large contribution to computer architecture and optimizing compiler design. ... Stuart Feldman is best known as the creator of the make computer software for UNIX systems. ... Harry Max Markowitz (born August 24, 1927) is an influential economist at the Rady School of Management at the University of California, San Diego. ... Llewellyn Hilleth Thomas born in 1903 died in 1992. ...

Blue Gene

Blue Gene, the world's third fastest computer according to the Top500 list of 2006, is in the research center. The TOP500 project ranks and details the 500 most powerful publicly-known computer systems in the world. ...

Buildings

Corridors on the Yorktown Heights buildings designed by Eero Saarinen.
Photo by George Cserna, 1961

Yorktown Heights Image File history File linksMetadata No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File linksMetadata No higher resolution available. ... Saarinens Gateway Arch frames The Old Courthouse, which sits at the heart of the city of Saint Louis, near the rivers edge. ...

The Yorktown Heights building, situated on private land not generally accessible to the public, is a large crescent-shaped structure consisting of three levels by 40 aisles. The lowest level is partially underground in some areas toward the shorter side of the crescent, which also leads to the employee parking lots. A large overhang protrudes from the front entryway of the building, and faces the visitor parking lot (See Map of Yorktown Heights Center in the External Links section). The building houses a library, an auditorium and a cafeteria.

Hawthorne

The Hawthorne building is a leased facility located on Skyline Drive, which is part of an industrial park shared by several area businesses. (As with all IBM Research facilities, secured access is still required for the building and parking area.) The Hawthorne building (located at 19 Skyline Drive) is easily recognizable by its mirrored facade and large blue pole. Located approximately 25 miles north of New York City, the Hawthorne site is smaller than its sister site at Yorktown Heights (with none of the wet lab space found in the Yorktown Heights facility). The primary focus at Hawthorne is software- and services-related research, whereas Yorktown Heights focuses on chemistry, mathematics, physics, silicon technology, and electrical engineering research, as well as some software and services. The building also contains a cafeteria, presentation center and library. The site, opened in 1984, was designed by Michael Harris Spector. Wet Laboratories are defined as laboratories where chemicals, drugs, or other material or biological matter are tested and analyzed requiring water, direct ventilation, and specialized piped utilities. ...

Cambridge

The Cambridge facility can be found at 1 Rogers Street, Cambridge, MA; it is located in one of IBM's Lotus Software development locations. Research at Cambridge comprises the Collaborative User Experience Group and the XML Standards/Technology Team. Lotus Software (called Lotus Development Corporation before its acquisition by IBM) is an American software company with its headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ...

See also

• Brennan, Jean Ford (1971). The IBM Watson Laboratory at Columbia University: A History. IBM. 
• Krawitz, Eleanor (November 1949). "The Watson Scientific Computing Laboratory: A Center for Scientific Research Using Calculating Machines". Columbia Engineering Quarterly. 
• Grosch, Dr. Herb (2003). Computer: Bit Slices from a Life.  500+ pages, including several chapters on IBM's Watson Scientific Computing Laboratory at Columbia University in the 1940s and 50s. Also available in PDF.

External links

• Wallace J. Eckert Founder and Director of the Watson Scientific Computing Laboratory at Columbia University
• IBM Watson Laboratory at Columbia University
• The Thomas J. Watson Astronomical Computing Bureau (1937)
• Watson Lab Gallery
• Thomas J. Watson Research Center
• Map of Yorktown Heights Center
• IBM Research Division