100% industry at IBM Deutschland Entwicklung und Forschung GmbH — and alongside it, teaching my own computer science lectures soon after starting my career. The honorary professorship awarded in 2001 at the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena recognized a connection that had long been lived, not its beginning.
"… that I may perceive whatever holds the world together in its innermost core." Goethe, Faust
I earned my doctorate in physics and came to data processing through the computer-based automation of my experiments. My career began in March 1984 at IBM Deutschland Entwicklung und Forschung GmbH in Böblingen, which then took me fully into computer science — I brought the curiosity for fundamental questions with me, an attitude that would shape all my later work.
Building bridges between industry and academia has always mattered to me — not as separate careers, but as one. I first started teaching in Furtwangen in 1986. Then, with the fall of the Berlin Wall, I became the first IBM lecturer in the newly reunified eastern states, delivering my first lecture in Leipzig in 1990 and later teaching at the University of Jena from 1994. Being able to witness and accompany the upheavals of that time is something I still consider a great privilege today. I initiated and led many collaborative projects, bringing students into the company and projects to the students. My roles in both academia and industry complemented each other superbly.
Since my early days close to the hardware in processor development, I have been able to follow and accompany many new technologies as they emerged. Hardware-level programming evolved into systems development for mainframe systems management. The journey continued through the first smart card developments and the early days of the Internet of Things — back then still called "pervasive computing" — to social computing and modern web technologies, all the way to quantum computers, whose physical foundations I was still able to present to colleagues at the research and development center before my retirement.
As Chief Technology Advisor, I represented the German research and development lab to companies, public institutions, and government agencies, and advised at the CxO level — including presenting IBM's technology outlook for the years ahead. I never felt like, or acted as, a "salesperson." The combination with the professorship, in particular, allowed for an independence and freedom that went well beyond the corporate framework alone. I was never only interested in the technical content, but above all in what it means for us as individuals and as a society — making these often complex relationships understandable for non-IT specialists remains something I care about to this day.
For many years, I have been involved in academic self-governance: as a reviewer on various committees (including the German Research Foundation, DFG), as a member of several appointment committees, and for many years as a reviewer for ASIIN, accrediting computer science degree programs in Germany, Europe, and, more recently, frequently in China as well. I wouldn't want to have missed the experience of exchange with colleagues from public institutions, other companies, and politics — not least within the framework of joint EU projects. For several years, I was also co-editor of the journal Information Technology.
"…whatever holds the world together at its core" — this question from physics never quite let go of me. It's just that between the full IBM working life and teaching in parallel, there was often little time left for it. My interest in the epistemological questions of quantum physics, relativity, and cosmology has remained active to this day. Now that I find more time for it again, I occasionally give popular-science talks and courses on these subjects — at adult education centers or in interested philosophical circles.
Because curiosity isn't reserved for physics alone.
For speaking inquiries, academic exchange, or questions about my reviewing work, you can reach me at martin.welsch (at) mwitplus.com.