IBM Names 11 Fellows As Analytics Dominates Discussion

April 7, 2014 Alex Woodie

IBM unveiled its latest crop of Fellows last week, eight men and three women who’s technical achievement brought them the honor. None of the newly minted Fellows worked directly with IBM i, Power Systems, or the Rochester, Minnesota lab, as many of the this year’s Fellows are leaders in analytics and related fields.

Thomas Watson created the IBM Fellows program 51 years ago to reward the exceptional achievement of scientists, engineers, and developers. Over that time, only 257 IBMers have received the distinction, and just 87 of them are still with the company. This year’s banner crop of Fellows has 283 patents among them, eight PhDs, 188 years of combined IBM experience, and numerous awards.

The 2014 Fellows are:

Sandy Bird, Software Group (Fredericton, Canada). Bird, the co-founder and CTO of Q1 Labs, helped transform the QRadar product from a network traffic anomaly detection tool to a security intelligence platform.
Rhonda Childress, Global Technology Services (Austin, Texas). Childress, an expert in the development of systems management and security as it applies in outsourcing, has 75 patents to her name, and recently has helped address security in client’s big data systems.
Alessandro Curioni, IBM Research (Rueschlikon, Switzerland). Curioni claims credit for the ab-initio molecular dynamics code CPMD and its application on supercomputers, and has won the PRACE and Gordon Bell Awards.
Tamar Eilam, IBM Research (Yorktown Heights, New York). Eilam is a pioneer in the model-driven approach to software and systems configuration and deployment, and has been involved in IBM’s PureSystems approach to building and deploying cloud applications based on patterns of expertise.
Michael Haydock, Global Business Services (Minneapolis, Minnesota). As Chief Scientific Officer in IBM’s Business Analytics and Optimization Consulting Organization, Haydock has built analytic solutions for clients in a variety of industries.
Namik Hrle, Software Group (Boeblingen, Germany). Hrle has worked on IBM’s big data analytics initiative for the System z mainframe, and is credited with the conception, design, and implementation of the DB2 Analytics Accelerator for the mainframe.
Dharmendra Modha, IBM Research (San Jose, California). Modha’s expertise in cognitive computing has been instrumental in the development of “brain-inspired” ultra-low power chips that meld the fields of supercomputing, neuroscience, and nanotechnology.
Aleksandra Mojsilovic, IBM Research (Yorktown Heights, New York). Mojsilovic is a pioneer in the field of using mathematical modeling to support business decisions. She’s currently working to build next-gen predictive models and architectures.
Krishna Ratakonda, IBM Research (Yorktown Heights, New York). Ratakonda is a pioneer in developing analytical models in services projects. He has 49 patents to his name (with another 34 pending) and is also credited with the creation of several cognitive computing assets.
Shivakumar Vaithyanathan, IBM Research (San Jose, California). Vaithyanathan is credited with founding an area of research around sentiment analysis, and his work in search, analytics, and machine learning were instrumental in the development of IBM’s Social Media Analytics product.
Andrew Walls, Systems and Technology Group (San Jose, California). Walls is an expert in high-performance storage, and was instrumental in the recent introduction of flash storage to IBM’s enterprise systems. He is a prolific innovator with 71 patents to his name.

The 2014 Fellows, from left: Ratakonda, Modha, Haydock, Mojsilovic, Curioni, Childress, Bird, Hrle, Eilan, Walls, Vaithyanathan.

The Fellows are representatives of IBM’s huge, $6 billion annual commitment to R&D, according to Ginni Rometty, IBM president, CEO, and chairman. “The 2014 IBM Fellows join a distinguished group of leaders in science and technology, not only in our own company, but in our industry and academia. They are innovators at the forefront of data, analytics, cloud, mobile and the other historic technical innovations that are changing business and society today.”

It won’t be all rainbows and unicorns for this year’s Fellows, who have been drafted into IBM’s Technology Ambassador initiative to spread the love of technology around the world. This year’s group will fan out to all corners of the globe, including Argentina, Algeria, Bulgaria, Chile, Czech Republic, Malaysia, Mexico, Norway, Peru, Singapore, and Turkey.