Dr. Kai-Fu Lee Joins Microsoft Research

REDMOND, Wash., July 9, 1998 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that Dr. Kai-Fu Lee is joining Microsoft Research as the director of advanced interactive systems. Lee, widely known for his pioneering work in the areas of speech recognition, artificial intelligence, 3-D graphics and Internet multimedia, joins Microsoft Research from his recent position as president of Cosmo Software, the Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI) multimedia software business unit. Before his position at SGI, Lee spent six years at Apple Computer Inc. leading its multimedia division.

“Dr. Lee is an excellent addition to Microsoft Research,”
said Nathan Myhrvold, chief technology officer, Microsoft.
“We are delighted that he will be joining our growing team of top computer scientists. Throughout the last decade, his contributions to computer science and the software industry have been outstanding. His passion for technology and research will complement our long-term goals of leading advances in the field of computer science and inventing innovative technologies that will affect millions of users.”

“I am very pleased about joining Microsoft Research,”
Lee said.
“Throughout my career, I have sought to make advanced interaction and multimedia technologies usable and useful to millions of people. Having met with many people at Microsoft, I am now convinced that Microsoft Research is where my dream will be realized. At Microsoft, I will have a unique opportunity to work with its world-class research team and make a lasting contribution to computing through Microsoft’s broad family of popular products.”

During his tenure at Cosmo, Lee was responsible for overseeing the business unit focused on multiplatform Internet 3-D and multimedia software. Before that, he was vice president and general manager of Silicon Graphics’ Web products division, responsible for several product lines and the company’s corporate Web strategy. Before joining SGI, Lee spent six years at Apple, most recently as vice president of the company’s interactive media group, which developed QuickTime, QuickDraw 3D, QuickTime VR and PlainTalk speech technologies.

Previous to his position at Apple, he was an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University, where he developed the world’s first speaker-independent continuous speech-recognition system. In 1988, Business Week awarded this system the Most Important Scientific Innovation rating. At Carnegie Mellon, Lee also developed the world-champion computer program that plays the game Othello and defeated the human world champion in 1988.

Founded in 1991, Microsoft Research is dedicated to conducting both basic and applied research in computer science and software engineering. The goal is to develop new technologies to simplify and enhance the user’s PC experience, reduce the cost of writing and maintaining software, and facilitate the creation of new types of software. Microsoft Research started with a handful of researchers and has grown steadily to include more than 300 computer scientists and engineers in a wide variety of areas including speech technology, databases, user interface and 3-D graphics.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.

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