Welcoming the “Great Minds” winners 2008

Zurich, Switzerland, 2 February 2009—Four students from Hungary, Poland, Russia, and Ukraine won the second "Great Minds" internship program of the Zurich Research Laboratory and will join the Lab this year. The initiative was launched in 2007 to offer students from throughout central and eastern Europe the chance to win an internship at IBM’s renowned European research laboratory.

"The 'Great Minds' initiative launched in 2007 has been a great experience—mutually beneficial for the students and for our researchers," reports Patricia Leoff, Human Resources Manager at the Zurich Research Laboratory. "The winning students embraced the opportunity to contribute to solutions to real IT and business issues. We were thrilled about their enthusiasm and they were thrilled to work in a truly international and multicultural research community."

Owing to its success, the "Great Minds" initiative was continued in 2008 for internships starting this year. And the winners are

• Daniel Czajka, AGH University of Science and Technology Cracow, Poland
• Pavel Kalinnikov, Novosibirsk State University, Russia
• Alexey Lomako, National Technical University "Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute," Ukraine
• Gergely János Paljak, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary

These four students will spend three to six months at the Zurich Research Lab working alongside world-class scientists on projects ranging from server technologies to accelerator technologies, business process modeling to supercomputing and business optimization.

Read what some of last year's winners had to say about their internship at the Zurich Lab.

More information on the "Great Minds" initiative.

About the IBM Zurich Research Lab — Member of a global research community

IBM Research - Zurich is the European branch of IBM Research. This worldwide network of some 3500 employees in eight laboratories around the globe is the largest industrial IT research organization in the world. The Zurich Laboratory, which was established in 1956, currently employs some 330 persons, representing more than 30 nationalities. World-class research and outstanding scientific achievements—most notably two Nobel Prizes—are associated with the Zurich Lab. Its spectrum of research activities ranges from basic science and fundamental research in physics and mathematics, to the development of computer systems and software, to the design of novel business models and services.