When you visit his office - a windowless room (as all are at IBM Research headquarters) in a quiet corner that branches off from the lab’s library - you see that it is filled with a collection of high-tech memorabilia. Probably his most recognizable invention is the technology inside the chips (low dielectric constant interconnects) that later went into both IBM Power and Z systems as well as the original Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 game systems. “I had the great fortune of working on interesting projects, in new areas, with great teams, where there’s an opportunity to invent,” he says. Or chemical pathways could be modeled through quantum computing to lead to more efficient processes of creating nitrogen-rich soil for farming.ĭalton, who joined IBM in 1998 after four years at Digital Equipment Corporation, started doing microelectronics research and, when probed, he mentions that he holds more than 300 patents and reached a level that qualified him at IBM for the title “Master Inventor.” He is quick to say that invention is very often a collaborative effort. Dalton mentions antibiotic-resistant bacteria and the hope that, through quantum computing, that antibiotic materials and bacterial pathways could be modeled to combat disease. Quantum - with its great ability to model systems such as molecules - has exciting, possible future applications. “We’re in the era of quantum ready.” He proudly reports that the open IBM Q Experience, available through the IBM Cloud, surpassed 100,000 users in mid-October.
“We turned it from something decades away to something happening now,” he says.
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He tells a story of how teams on the hardware and software sides were given a mission several years ago to get together and use their combined skills to make something out of a “small, noisy quantum computer.” But in May 2016, IBM released the IBM Quantum Experience, and in 2017 IBM Q, the world’s first commercial quantum computer for scientific and business applications, available through the cloud. If someone had asked him five years ago when a viable quantum computer may be available, he and most researchers would have said in 30 years, he says.
He shows small glints of pride when he talks IBM and quantum. But he is also self-effacing - a busy single dad of four (his son, Tobias, is Stevens Class of 2021) who juggles parenthood with the demands of a career as a top technologist. Dalton’s primary focuses are leading research efforts in quantum computing and AI - with most of his time in quantum - in what have been identified by IBM as major research areas.ĭalton clearly loves his work and speaks with great enthusiasm and authority on any number of research topics. He works with other team members in a leadership role focused on strategic and tactical research planning, meeting with clients around the world, making deals, and working within a broad range of areas within IBM, from business development and operations to finance and legal. It is Dalton’s job to try to predict the future of technology and how this will impact businesses and industry. He is like a kid in a candy store - a researcher still filled with wonder. He encourages stepping into the server room, which feels hot, and taking photos with the supercomputer. Watson Research Center, IBM’s research headquarters in Yorktown Heights, New York, which is also home to IBM Watson - the supercomputer that burst into public consciousness in 2011 when it bested two Jeopardy! champions and is now an artificial intelligence tool used in areas from healthcare to business management to materials science.ĭuring a visit last fall, Dalton leads several visitors down a corridor, eagerly opens a door and there is Watson - with its glass booth and banks of servers. Every day.”ĭalton helps lead the future of technology from the Thomas J. “And as you solve one problem, you move on to the next and the next and the next.” Indeed, in his job, “every day is new and exciting.
“I like the fact that we are inventing the future of technology,” he says. And as CTO, Science and Technology, with IBM Research, his job is to help deliver these future wonders to the world. But Dalton insists that we will continue to be astounded. What will be the next “wow” innovation ten years from now? It’s hard to know. You’ll see VCRs, cameras, tape recorders, telephones and calculators - all that now fit inside your cellphone, in the palm of your hand. IBM Master Inventor Tim Dalton ’88 (yes, this is a real title) suggests that if you want to begin to grasp the staggering pace of technology, read a newspaper ad for Radio Shack from the late ’80s or early ’90s.
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