Two IBM scientists, Drs. Lubomyr Romankiw and David Thompson (retired), will be inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame on May 2, 2012
for their three U.S.
patents that revolutionized data storage density and device ubiquity.
IBM has more than 4,000 active storage patents.
The patents – 4,295,173, 3,921,217, and 3,908,194 – are for techniques
that produce thin film magnetic heads in storage devices. These heads greatly
increased data storage density, while drastically reducing the cost, and today are
used in everything from computer hard drives to commercial disk storage in
digital cameras and mobile devices.
Dr. Romankiw holds over 65 patents and has published over
150 scientific papers. He is an IBM Fellow,
a member of the IBM Academy of Technology, an
IEEE Fellow, and an Electrochemical Society Fellow.
Dr. Thompson holds over 20 patents and has published over 30
scientific papers. He is an IBM Fellow, a
member of the IBM Academy of Technology, a
IEEE Fellow, and a member of the National Academy of Engineering.
