Microsoft Research Fast Facts
February 2009
- When Microsoft Corp. opened its first research lab on the company’s Redmond, Wash., campus in 1991, it became one of the first software companies to create its own computer science research organization.
- Over the past 17 years, Microsoft Research has evolved into an organization with more than 850 researchers, studying more than 55 areas of research.
- Microsoft Research has expanded globally to ensure that it can attract the richest pool of talent with six worldwide labs. They are in Redmond, Wash.; Bangalore, India; Beijing; Cambridge, Mass., Cambridge, United Kingdom; and Silicon Valley, Calif.
- Microsoft researchers work in an open research environment similar to that found on university campuses, exchanging ideas and technical insights with colleagues and collaborators to advance the state of the art.
- Today every product Microsoft ships is influenced by the work of Microsoft Research. A dedicated technology transfer team helps bridge the long-range research and near-term product develop functions within the company.
- While Microsoft Research focuses on basic research, it collaborates with several product incubation teams to deliver cutting-edge technologies through applied research. Microsoft Live Labs, Office Labs, DevLabs, SQL Services Labs, the Microsoft adCenter Incubation Lab (adLab), the Internet Services Research Center (ISRC), and the Cloud Computing Futures group bring together top-notch researchers and product teams to incubate and rapidly prototype new technologies and services.
- By licensing intellectual property generated from its research efforts, Microsoft Research is able to help startup organizations and other high-growth companies expand their businesses and drive innovation across the industry.
- Microsoft researchers contribute to conferences by writing and presenting papers, giving workshops, and serving as program chairs and reviewers.
- Microsoft Research has published more than 5,100 peer-reviewed publications. Many of these papers have received best-paper awards and are considered agenda-setting in the field of research.
- Microsoft Research hosted more than 800 interns at its worldwide labs in 2008.
- The diversity of scientists represented at Microsoft Research, including mathematicians, psychologists, anthropologists, sociologists and medical doctors, is an important component in generating unparalleled innovation and finding answers to computer science’s greatest challenges.
- Prestigious national and international honors bestowed on Microsoft researchers include the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the A.M. Turing Award given by the Association for Computing Machinery, the Kyoto Prize in Advanced Technology, the Charles Stark Draper Prize, the Fields Medal given by the International Mathematical Union, the IEEE John von Neumann Medal, the IEEE Emanuel R. Piore Award and a British knighthood.
- Microsoft Research collaborates with the world’s foremost researchers in academia, industry and government to move research in new directions across nearly every field of computer science, engineering and general science.
For more information, press only:
Julie Woodbury, Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, (503) 443-7000,
juliew@waggeneredstrom.com
Rapid Response Team, Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, (503) 443-7070,
rrt@waggeneredstrom.com
For more information about Microsoft Research:
http://www.research.microsoft.com
