Nestled in the hills at the southern tip of Silicon Valley, the IBM Almaden Research Center feels like a sophisticated summer camp for some of the world's most creative minds.
The center's glass walls are living landscapes of hillsides, open space and park lands laced with trails, dotted by orchards and alive with deer, wild turkey, and the occasional bobcat. The commute - many people bicycle to work - can literally mean a trip into the clouds, more than 800 feet above the valley floor.
Inside, the center itself is alive with imagination made reality.
"Almaden really does foster creativity," says Alison Sue, a researcher whose current focus is on computer access for people with disabilities. "People aren't expected to have a lot of boundaries, but to have freedom to try new things, make some mistakes, work with colleagues, brainstorm to get new ideas.."
Adding to the creative cacophony IBM draws on outside voices for fresh perspectives on a broad spectrum of topics. The roster of visiting speakers has included a Russian cosmonaut and a photographer who captured some of the earliest pictures of the Titanic, along with world-class experts in fields more directly related to work at Almaden.
The center's researchers also run their own, informal, lunchtime seminars. David Koons, who has worked with user interfaces for three years, lauds a work environment that encouraged a separate series of weekly sessions on synergistic projects.
"What I really like about this place is that there are a lot of really bright, smart people here, and everybody wants to play," he says. "You have this sense that you're inventing this cool new stuff."
The 500 researchers and other staff here are doing exactly that. The center is renowned, among other things, for its research in magnetic data storage, database and Web technologies, nanotechnology, quantum information, materials science, chemistry and user interfaces.
Part of what makes work at Almaden attractive is the freedom to look ahead. "At a lot of places, research isn't necessarily about research, but about product development disguised as research," Koons says. "In general, we're not worried about getting too constrained by the product development cycle."
Among high-profile historic efforts, Almaden researcher Don Eigler was the first person to move individual atoms (the feat was widely enough known to be a correctly questioned answer on television's "Jeopardy" game show). In 1970, an Almaden computer scientist's paper describing a relational database led to the modern database industry. And the center is a leader in research on photoresists, which some consider the "unsung heroes" of the information age for facilitating chip making.
The research goes on in surroundings that are comfortable on several levels: "Ideas are more important than your credentials," says Koons. He points out that although he is a research engineer - as opposed to a full research staff member, which typically requires a Ph.D. - "no one seems to care. It's really a matter of how you perform, and how rich are your ideas."
The comfort even extends to clothing, from jeans to business suits - even swimsuits under shorts and Hawaiian shirts (flip-flops optional), with the Pacific Ocean less than an hour away.
It doesn't take much more time than that to drive from Almaden to an array of different worlds: quietly impressive redwood forests to the north and south, the cultural oasis of San Francisco, Monterey Bay and its world-class aquarium, the University of California-Berkeley and Stanford University. Besides offering internships for college students from around the country, Almaden makes the most of its proximity to major universities for collaborative research projects. This may involve sharing funding, people or equipment, but it always involves shared interests.
Recreation on-site ranges from basketball, horse shoes and sand-court volleyball, to monthly afternoon "socials," occasional overnight camp-outs (the kids are welcome), hiking, aerobics classes and visits each Friday by a masseuse.
There's no pool or full-blown gym. "But they're looking at how they can accommodate what employees want, and the exercise room is an example of that," says Sue, who has been at Almaden for 13 years. "That means something to me. …
"For me, the people I work with make a big difference," she says. "Everyone is so helpful, so giving and just so funny. There's a great sense of humor and playfulness that people have here."
Further reading:
Almaden Research home
Almaden Research projects
Site wild flowers
Site environs
Computer Science Software home page
Computer Science Storage home page
Science & Technology home page
Services Research home page
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A quick look inside some of our labs:
Outside the Almaden Research Center |
A panoramic view of the Center (More Wildflowers) |
Lobby |
Library |
Cafeteria |
Outside |
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