Colin Harrison

About me

Colin Harrison

Director, Strategic Innovation


Research lab: Zurich Research Lab


IBM Global Services
IBM Zurich Research Laboratory
Sauemerstrasse 4
8803 Rueschlikon
Switzerland

Phone: +41-44-724-8935
Mobile: +41-79-309-1384
Fax: +41-44-724-8966
E-mail: ch@zurich.ibm.com

Current position

Colin Harrison is director for Strategic Innovation for IBM Global Services Strategic Outsourcing in EMEA.   He manages a programme known as Best of Blue that aims to bring the best of global IBM's capabilities to bear on outsourcing clients' needs.  Previously he established the IBM Institute for Advanced Learning, a global, virtual organization, jointly planned between IBM Research and IBM Global Services. Its goal is to bring together IBM's leading consultants and researchers in academic education and professional training to develop science, technology, and thought leadership materials in support of IBM's business in this rapidly growing area. Colin was Department Group Manager for Information & Knowledge Management at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, Hawthorne, NY and IBM Research Director of Global Services Research. In that capacity he had worldwide responsibility for the partnership between IBM Research and IBM Global Services.

Bio

Colin Harrison is a native of Scarborough in northern England and studied Electrical Engineering at the Imperial College of Science and Technology at the University of London and at Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich. He obtained his Ph.D. in 1973 for studies of micromagnetic structures in thin single-crystals of nickel. He joined the IBM General Products Division in 1979 in San Jose to work on detector problems for magnetic bubble memories. During 1981-87 he lead a research project for IBM Instruments, Inc. and IBM Federal Systems Division in medical imaging. He joined the IBM Research division in 1988 in the ACE multiprocessor workstation project and was one of the instigators of the development of portable computers with handwriting input and wireless communications. This lead in 1992 to the PC Vision video of future experiences of personal computing. During 1992-93 he was on assignment at the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory, where he was a principal architect of the IBM Intelligent Communication Services platform. After returning to Hawthorne, he continued working with ICS and formed the Networked Services group to perform research in the area of intelligent agents and Smart Networks. During 1994-95, he managed the Communication Systems group, which was working on the delivery of interactive multimedia services over CATV and on developing designs for high bandwidth adapters, the Networked Applications Architecture group, which was participating in the development of Intelligent Transportation Systems and a TINA Distributed Processing Environment, and the Communications Microelectronics group, which designed high-performance protocol engines. He launched a project to integrate telephone voice conferencing with Web-based conferencing and also an IBM-wide study of technology for providing real-time services such as voice telephony over packet networks, such as the Internet. In March 1996, he moved back to the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory, continuing his leadership of the Internet telephony work and his role as IBM Research strategist for telecommunications. During this time he launched an NSF-funded program with Cornell University on workstation telephony. In March 1997, he returned to Hawthorne to become Department Group Manager and director of a partnership program between IBM Research and IBM Global Services. In July 1997 he published The Agent Sourcebook (John Wiley, and Sons) on the business applications of intelligent software agents. In August 2001 he returned again to the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory to lead the establishment of the IBM Institute for Advanced Learning. In January 2004 he joined IBM’s European services organization, where he acts as director of Strategic Innovation, leading a team known as Best of Blue. In October 2004 he was inducted into the IBM Academy of Technology and in November 2004 he became a Master Inventor.

In former lives he spent several years at CERN in Switzerland building the CERN SPS particle accelerator (1975) and with EMI (now Thorn) Central Research Laboratories, Hayes, England building the world's first clinically-useful magnetic resonance imaging system (1978)for the then Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith, England (now part of  the Imperial College School of Medicine).

Colin has published a number of papers, authored several patents, and has received several awards. He loves attending classical music concerts, walking and skiing in the Alps. He is developing a second career as a nature photographer; see Studio Albis. He is particularly interested in developing a historical view of the impact of information technology on society. He carefully nurtures a 1973 Triumph TR6 sports car. Colin is a Fellow of the IET, a Senior Member of the IEEE, a member of the IBM Academy of Technology, and was a founding member of the Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. Although living currently in Zurich, his home is in Brookfield, Connecticut with his wife, Lynn, son, Mark, and Bichon Frisé, Ursa Major.

Research interests

  • 2002-Present: Innovation and how to achieve this with our outsourcing clients.
  • 2000-2002: e-Learning, how can information technology address the education and training needs for the 21C knowledge economy?
  • 1999-2000: Technologies for managing Unstructured Information, role of information flows in organizations..
  • 1994-1999: Internet multimedia services, high-bandwidth communication services to the home & small office, intelligent agents, Internet social impact, Smart Networks.
  • 1992-93: Network services for mobile users, Smart Networks, wireless access services.
  • 1989-92: Media access and control for wireless data links, impacts of mobility of link layer and network layer protocols, and on operating systems, application shell for handwriting input and recognition.
  • 1988-89: Multiprocessor workstations, systems software and application development tools.
  • 1980-88: Whole-body, high-field, superconducting magnets for clinical Nuclear Magnetic Resonance imaging and spectroscopy, application of artificial intelligence to user interfaces for clinical imaging systems.
  • 1979-80: Magneto-resistive sensors for magnetic bubble memories.
  • 1977-79: Techniques for head and whole-body imaging by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, early clinical applications.
  • 1972-77: Fast-pulsed magnets for 300 GeV/c proton beam control.
  • 1968-72: Micromagnetic structures in thin films and crystals, studied by Lorentz microscopy at 1 MeV.

Education

  • University of London, The Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, UK. Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering & Diploma of Imperial College, February 1973. Dissertation Title: "Analysis of Micromagnetic Structures by Lorentz Microscopy". Research Advisor: K. D. Leaver.
  • Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich, West Germany, September 1968 - July 1969. Studies of stripe domains in thin nickel-iron films. Research Advisor: Prof. H. Hoffmann.
  • University of London, The Imperial College of Science and Technology, London,UK, September 1965 - July 1968. B.Eng. in Electrical Engineering with First Class Honours & Associate of the City & Guilds Institute, July 1968.

Research and professional experience

  • IBM Research Division, April 2001 - September 2002. Establishing the IBM Institute for Advanced Learning.
  • IBM Research Division, March 1988 - March 2001. Research Staff Member and Managerof Advanced Workstation Systems. Principal architect of the Intelligent Communications Service platform. Senior Manager for Communication Systems and Networked Services. Research strategist for telecommunications. Department Group Manager for Global Services Research.
  • IBM Federal Systems Division, Gaithersburg, MD, September 1986 - February 1988. Senior Engineer & Manager, Advanced Medical Imaging Systems.
  • IBM Instruments, Inc., Danbury, CT, October 1981 - August 1986. Advisory Engineer, later Senior Engineer & Manager, Advanced Technology Programs. Developing technology and applications of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance imaging in medicine.
  • IBM General Products Division, San Jose, CA, June 1979 - September 1981. Advisory Engineer on joint GPD/Research program to develop Magnetic Bubble Technology, working on process control issues in magneto-resistive detectors.
  • EMI Central Research Laboratories, Hayes, UK, September 1977 - June 1979. Initially Project Engineer, later Technical Manager, on the development of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) for medical imaging purposes. Built the first clinical, 0.15 Tesla head imager and designed the first superconducting body imager. Worked on the development of a fast pulsed power supply for 1-20 A at 140 kV with 10-100 microsecond pulses.
  • CERN, Geneva, Switzerland, December 1972 - August 1977. Electrical Engineer building fast pulsed magnet systems for the 400 GeV accelerator project(SPS): the internal emergency beam dump, the tune-measuring system and the fast single-turn extraction and 1 ms fast extraction systems (1972-74). Subsequently developed real-time control software for these magnet systems in NORD-10 assembler (1974-75). Engineer-in-charge of running the accelerator and accelerator physics development of stabilization of the slow-ejection spill using a learning program and a programmed beam bump (1975-77).

Professional qualifications

  • Institution of Electrical Engineers, UK, (Member, 1976, Fellow, 1996) (EU Chartered Engineer).
  • Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, USA, (Member, 1976, Senior Member, 1995).
  • Founder member of the Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, USA, (1982).
  • FEANI European Engineer (Eur. Ing.), (2002).

Honors & awards

  • IBM Master Inventor, 2004.
  • IBM Academy of Technology, 2004.
  • Deutsche Akademischer Austausch Dienst scholarship, 1968.

Academic appointments

  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Visiting Scientist, 1981-86.
  • Harvard Medical School, Research Associate in Radiology, 1983-88.

Refereed publications

  1. C. G. Harrison, "Million-Volt Microscopes", IEE Students Quarterly Journal, vol. 42, no. 167, p. 21 (1972)
  2. C. G. Harrison and K. D. Leaver, "A Second Domain Wall Parameter Measurable by Lorentz Microscopy", phys. stat. sol. (a), vol. 12, no. 413 (1972)
  3. C. G. Harrison, "The Analysis of Two-Dimensional Wall Structures by Lorentz Microscopy", phys. stat. sol. (a), vol. 15, no. 415 (1973)
  4. C. G. Harrison, "Lorentz Images of Tilted 180 degree Magnetic Domain Walls",PhysicsLetters, vol. 41A, no. 1, p. 53 (1972)
  5. C. G. Harrison and K. D. Leaver, "Micromagnetic Structures in Single Crystal Specimens of Intermediate Thickness by Lorentz Microscopy", Journal of Microscopy, vol. 97, no. 139 (1973)
  6. C. G. Harrison, K. D. Leaver, and P. R. Swann, "A Versatile Specimen Chamberfor in situ Experiments on Magnetic Materials", Proc. Fifth European Congress on Electron Microscopy, Manchester, UK (1972)
  7. P. E. Faugeras, C. G. Harrison, E. Frick, H. Kuhn, G. Schroder, and J-P.Zanasco, "The SPS Fast Pulsed Magnet Systems", 12th Modulator Symposium,New York, USA (1976)
  8. C. G. Harrison, "Micromagnetic Characteristics of Chevron Bubble Detectors",INTERMAG 80, Boston (USA), 21-24 April 1980, IEEE Trans. on Magnetics,vol. MAG-16, no. 5, pp. 861-863, (September 1980)
  9. C. G. Harrison, R. B. Hauswitzer, and J. L. Voge, "A High-frequency Kerr-effect Microscope", IEEE Trans. on Instrumentation and Measurement, vol.IM-30, n 3, 202-205, (Sept. 1981)
  10. C. G. Harrison, "A Limiting Effect in Narrow Permalloy Lines", INTERMAG-81, Grenoble, France, 11-15 May 1981. Published in IEEE Trans. on Magnetics,vol. MAG-17, no. 6, pp. 2668-2670, (November 1981)
  11. C. G. Harrison, D. F. Adams, and P. B. Kramer, "Imaging of Complex NMRSpectra", Investigative Radiology, vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 180-185,(March-April 1985)
  12. D. Foxvog, J. E. Vargas, J. R. Bourne, J. Sztipanovits, R. A. Mushlin,and C. G. Harrison, "PUPA: A Pulse Programming Assistant for NMR Imaging", IEEE Trans. on Engineering in Medicine and Biology, vol. 43, no. 10, pp.938-943, (1987)
  13. D. Chess, B. Grosof, C. G. Harrison, D. W. Levine, C. J. Parris, and G.Tsudik, "Itinerant Agents for Mobile Computing", IEEE Personal Communication Services Magazine, vol. 2, no. 5, pp. 34-49, (October 1995)
  14. C. G. Harrison and J. Penny, “The Roles of the Computer in the Learning Community”, 4th International Conference on New Educational Environments, Lugano, Switzerland, (May 8-11, 2002) (RZ3420)

Non-refereed publications

  1. C. G. Harrison, D. F. Adams, and P. B. Kramer, "Imaging of Complex NMR Spectra", 31st Annual Meeting of the Association of University Radiologists,Mobile, Alabama, (March 20-25, 1983)
  2. S. R. Koenig, R. D. Brown, III, C. G. Harrison, and D F Adams, "MagneticField Dependence of T1 in Tissue", 31st Annual Meeting of the Association of University Radiologists, Mobile, Alabama, (March 20-25, 1983)
  3. H. E. Longmaid, D. F. Adams, C. G. Harrison, R. Neirinckx, P. Brunner, S. Seltzer, L. J. Neuringer, and R. Geyer, "In-vivo, non-proton, 19F-NMRImaging of Liver, Tumor and Abcess", 31st Annual Meeting of the Association of University Radiologists, Mobile, Alabama, (March 20-25, 1983)
  4. S. R. Koenig, R. D. Brown, III, C. G. Harrison, and D. F. Adams, "Field Cyclingof Proton Relaxation Rates in Tissues", 24th Experimental NMR Conference, Asilomar, California, (April 10-14, 1983)
  5. H. E. Longmaid, D. F. Adams, C. G. Harrison, R. Neirinckx, P. Brunner,S. Seltzer, M. A. Davis, L. J. Neuringer, and R. Geyer, "In-Vivo 19F-NMR Imaging of Pathologic Tissue", 2nd Annual Meeting of the Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, San Francisco, California, (16-19 August 1983)
  6. S. Koenig and C. G. Harrison, "Determinants of Spin-Lattice Relaxation in Biological Tissues", 2nd Annual Meeting of the Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, San Francisco, California, (16-19 August 1983)
  7. M. S. Roos, R. A. Mushlin, E. Veklerov, J. D. Port, and C. Ladd, and C.G. Harrison, "An Instrument Control and Data Analysis Program for Imaging and In-vivo Spectroscopy", Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 5th Annual Meeting, Montreal, (August 1986)
  8. J. R. Bourne, J. Stzipanovits, R. A. Mushlin, C. Beigl, D. Foxvog, G. Karsai,and X. Li, "AI Techniques for the Control of MRI Instruments", Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 5th Annual Meeting, Montreal, (August 1986)
  9. D. Chess, C. G. Harrison, and A. Kershenbaum, "Mobile Agents: Are they a good idea?", IBM Research Report, RC 19887, (October 1994)
  10. C. G. Harrison, "IBM Intelligent Communications Service Platform", ComNet'95, Washington, DC, (January 995)
  11. C. G. Harrison, "Smart Networks and Intelligent Agents", Intelink IndustryConference, Washington, DC, (April 1995)
  12. C. G. Harrison, "Smart Networks and Intelligent Agents", MediaCom'95, Southampton, UK, (April 1995)
  13. C. G. Harrison and others, "The IBM Research Multimedia Gateway", MediaCom'95,Southampton, UK, (April 1995)
  14. C. G. Harrison, "Intelligent Agent Technology", Communication Services,EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland, (June 1995)
  15. C. G. Harrison, "Voice on the Net and the Telecommunications Industry", Voice on the Net, Spring VON  '97, San Francisco, (April 1997)
  16. C. G. Harrison, "The Next Big Thing", Frontiers in Distributed InformationSystems '97, Aspen, CO, (June 1997)
  17. C. G. Harrison, "The Emergence of the Internet Telephony Service Provider", Communication Services, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland, (June 1998)
  18. C. G. Harrison, "Data or Computation: Which should we move?”, 4th International Agent Systems and Applications/Mobile Agents Symposium, ETH, Zurich, Switzerland, September 2000
  19. C. G. Harrison, ''Smart Services of the Future", NSF Intelligent Maintenance Systems Center Establishment, U. Wisconsin, Milwaukee, (November 2000)
  20. C. G. Harrison, "Active Knowledge’’, IBM Academy of Technology conference on Knowledge Management, Zurich, Switzerland, (April 2001)
  21. C. G. Harrison, "Developments in Managing Information and Knowledge in an e-enabled Organisation”, invited lectures in the ICTEC at Helsinki University of Technology, (September 26, 2001)
  22. C. G. Harrison, "Technologies for Knowledge Space”, invited talk at the University of Florence International seminar on e-Learning, (October 29-30, 2001)
  23. C. G. Harrison, "Extending eLearning Beyond the Core Population“, On-Line Educa, Berlin, Germany, (November 29, 2001)
  24. C. G. Harrison, "Technologies for Learning Spaces”, invited talk at the European Schoolnet Eminent II conference, Lisbon, Portugal, (December 6-7, 2001)
  25. C. G. Harrison, "The Evolution of Learning Systems as the Enterprise Knowledge Management Platform”, invited talk at Personalfachkongress 2002, Basel, Switzerland, (March 13, 2002)
  26. C. G. Harrison, "Technologies for the Learning Space”, invited talk at Telematic Insituut conference on New Directions in ICT”, Telematica Instituut, Enschede, The Netherlands, (April 24, 2002)
  27. C. G. Harrison, “eLearning Technology: Convergence with the Mainstream”, invited talk at IFIP conference on “Social, Ethical, and Cognitive Issues of Informatics and ICT”, University of Dortmund, (July 22-26, 2002)
  28. C. G. Harrison, “Enabling ICT Adoption in Developing Knowledge Societies”, invited talk at the Engineering the Knowledge Society Forum at the ITU World Summit of the Information Society, Geneve, Switzerland, (December 11, 2003)

Books

  1. D. Chess, C. G. Harrison, and A. Kershenbaum, "Mobile Agents: Are they a good idea?", in "Mobile Object Systems - Towards the Programmable Internet", Second International Workshop, MOS'96, Linz, Austria, July 8-9, 1996. J.Vitek and C. Tschudin (eds.), Springer, Berlin
  2. A. K. Caglayan and C. G. Harrison, "The Agent Sourcebook", ISBN 0-471-15327-3, July 1997, John Wiley &Sons, Inc., NY
  3. A. K. Caglayan and C. G. Harrison, "Intelligente Software-Agenten", ISBN3-446-19269-7, Carl Hanser Verlag, Munich, 1998, (German edition of "The Agent Sourcebook")
  4. A. K. Caglayan and C. G. Harrison, "Les Agents", ISBN 2-225-83146-7, MassonEditeur, Paris, 1998 (French edition of "The Agent Sourcebook")
  5. D. Chess, B. Grosof, C. G. Harrison, and D. Levine, "Itinerant Agents for Mobile Computing" in "Readings in Agents", M. N. Huhns and M. P. Singh (eds.), ISBN 1-55860-495-2, Morgan Kaufman Publishers, San Francisco, November 1997

Published patents

  1. C. G. Harrison and I. R. Young, "Imaging Systems", no. 1,584,950, (UK),(February 18, 1981)
  2. M. Burl and C. G. Harrison, "Imaging System", no. 2,049,947, (UK), (December 31, 1980)
  3. C. G. Harrison, "Pulsed Power Supplies", no. 4,255,668, (USA), (March 10,1981)
  4. I. R. Young and C. G. Harrison, "Nuclear Magnetic Resonance System", no.2,056,079A, (UK), (March 11, 1981)
  5. M. Burl, H. Clow, C. G. Harrison, and I. R. Young, "Imaging Systems", no.4,284,950, (USA), (August 18, 1981)
  6. C. G. Harrison and I. R. Young, "Imaging Systems", no. 4,300,096, (USA),(November 10, 1981)
  7. C. G. Harrison and M. Burl, "Imaging Systems", no. 4,333,053, (USA), (June 1, 1982)
  8. I. R. Young and C. G. Harrison, "Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Systems", no.4,384,255, (USA), (May 17,1983)
  9. C. G. Harrison and P. D. Hortensius "Coordination of Wireless Medium among a Plurality of Base Stations", no. 5,068,916, (USA), (November 26, 1991)
  10. C. G. Harrison "Handoff Method and Apparatus for Mobile Wireless Workstation",no. 5,181,200, (USA), (January 19, 1993)
  11. R. F. Freitas, C. G. Harrison, and P. D. Hortensius, "Control Method and Apparatus for Wireless Data Link", no. 5,198,918, (USA), (March 30, 1993)
  12. R. F. Freitas, C. G. Harrison, and P. D. Hortensius, "Control Method and Apparatus for Wireless Data Link", no. 5,321,542, (USA), (June 14, 1994)
  13. C. G. Harrison, "Workstation Power Management by Page Placement Control", no. 5,390,334, (USA), (February 14, 1995)
  14. J. M. Dunn, C. G. Harrison, D. W. Levine, E. H. Stern, "Network for Efficiently Locating Resources and Routing Service Requests Received from Individual Node Connections", no. 5,742,598, (USA), (April 21, 1998)
  15. H. Ahmadi, D. Bantz, F. Bauchot, C. G. Harrison, A. Krishna, J. L. Martinez, K. Natarajan, M. Wetterwald, "Allocation Method and Apparatus for Reusing Network Resources in a Wireless Communication System", no. 5,781,536, (USA),(July 14, 1998)
  16. W. J. Anderson, N. J. Anthony, D. C. Chow, C. G. Harrison, T. Issadisai,H. G. Page, ``Disambiguating Input Strokes of a Stylus-based Input Devices for Gesture Recognition or Character Recognition", no. 5,784,504, (USA), (July 21, 1998)
  17. C. G. Harrison and D. Jaepel, "Wide-area Wireless LAN Access",  no.5,796,727, (USA), (August 18, 1998)
  18. H. Ahmadi, D. Bantz, F. Bauchot, C. G. Harrison, A. Krishna, J. L. Martinez,K. Natarajan, M. Wetterwald, "Allocation Method and Apparatus for Reusing Network Resources in a Wireless Communication System”, no. 5,870,385, (USA), (February 9, 1999)
  19. C. G. Harrison, "Enhanced Data Privacy for Portable Computers", no. 5,870,468, (USA), (February 9, 1999)
  20. J. M. Dunn, C. G. Harrison, E. H. Stern, J. J. Toohey, B. E. Willner, "Multimedia Conference Using Parallel Networks", no. 5,916,302, (USA), (June 29, 1999)
  21. J. M. Dunn, A. G. Ganek, C. G. Harrison, E. H. Stern, B. E. Willner, "User Invocation of Services in Public Switched Telephone Network via Parallel Data Networks", no. 5,917,817, (USA), (June 29, 1999)
  22. B. E. Willner, M. A. Block, S. Brady, D. Foulger, A. G. Ganek, C. G. Harrison,T. E. Newman, G. Soora, E. H. Stern, A. N. Tantawi, "Cross Service Common User Image Association”, no. 6, 917, 817, (USA), (May 16, 2000)
  23. C. G. Harrison, E. H. Stern, B. E. Willner, "Quality of Service Management for Packet Switched Networks”, no. 6,091,709, (USA), (July 18, 2000)
  24. C. G. Harrison, R. Spagna, S. Nichols, "Agent Activity Report via Object Embedding’, no. 6,151,623, (USA), (November 21, 2000)
  25. E.Stern, B. Willner, C. G. Harrison, "Caller-Controlled Barge-In Telephone Service”, no. 6,418,216, (USA), June 9, 2002)
  26. H. Ahmadi, D. Bantz, F. Bauchot, C. G. Harrison, A. Krishna, J-L. Martinez, K. Natarajan, M. Wetterwald, "Allocation method and apparatus for reusing network resources in a wireless communication system”, no. 6, 597, 671, (USA), July 22, 2003
  27. J. Dunn, A. G. Ganek, C. G. Harrison, E. H. Stern, B. E. Willner, "System and method for large file transfers in packet networks", no 6,765,868 (USA), July 20, 2004

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Last updated 11 May 2006

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