IBM’s Paul Horn retires, Kelly takes research helm

By Suzanne Deffree, News Editor -- Electronic News, 7/18/2007

Paul Horn, senior VP of IBM Research, has announced his retirement from IBM after 28 years, 11 of which were spent leading IBM's labs.

Horn, 60, is credited with leading such IBM milestones as the chess-playing supercomputer Deep Blue, the world's first copper chip and strained silicon. IBM also credits a paper Horn published in 2001 on autonomic computing, a discipline aimed at  systems that can detect problems and fix themselves without human intervention, as driving the company in that direction. 

“He drove the integration of exploratory work with exciting new research disciplines, opened up our labs to the influence of partners and newly acquired companies and connected IBM researchers with clients and the marketplace,” Nick Donofrio, IBM executive VP, said in an internal memo sent to IBM’s leadership and technical community Tuesday. “Thanks to his keen understanding of our business and its needs, IBM now benefits from a tight and effective integration among the Research division, our company and our clients.” 

Horn, a solid state physicist by training, joined IBM in 1979 after working as a professor of physics in the James Franck Institute and the physics department at the University of Chicago.

Succeeding him is John Kelly, III, most recently senior VP of IBM Technology and Intellectual Property.  Prior to assuming his current role in September of 2004, Kelly was group executive for IBM’s Technology Group, where he was responsible for developing, manufacturing and marketing IBM’s microelectronics technologies, products and services. Kelly joined IBM in 1980 after receiving his doctorate in materials engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

While the change is effective immediately, IBM said that Horn will assist Kelly through September with the changeover. At that time, Horn will become a distinguished scientist in residence at New York University.