The First Corporate Pure Science Research Laboratory

“Thomas Watson wanted IBM to be the best at everything. He wanted to have the fastest electronic computer, the best headquarters building and the best art collection. And he wanted to have the best research, too.”

“This was a very informal place. We felt that the people who were coming to solve problems should mix with the people who were learning and who were giving courses. We always had problems of our own, of course, that we were interested in getting solved. So the place was more like a university laboratory than a computing center. People sat around and discussed their problems and they would wait for the machines and while one person was using one machine, somebody else would be using another. So it was a very intimate arrangement.”

“IBM Research over the years, since it started with Wallace Eckert and long since I left, has brought the capabilities of information processing to bear on a huge and growing range of human needs and human aspirations worldwide.”

“From the first day I stepped in they talked about changing computing, and they gave us the freedom to do new things.”

“An [academic] department is like a small specialized business whose principal products are narrowly focused articles, books, and new graduates ready to join the corresponding guild. On the other hand, in order to serve the corporation, IBM's Research Division took a longer and deeper view. Scientifically, it was broadly based and historical circumstances prepared it to risk sheltering a few one-man projects not limited to an established area. It started in the 1950s with none of the glamor of its competitors in academia and industry. By 1993 … the quality of its staff, most notably the abnormally large numbers of resident mavericks, had made it one of the most respected scientific powerhouses, worldwide.”