RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – Kyle Brown, a veteran IBM executive and a resident of Apex, is joining the elite ranks of IBM Fellows.

Big Blue named Brown, who is already am IBM Distinguished Engineer and chief technology officer for IBM Cloud Architecture. He earned his Master’s degree at N.C. State.

“First of all, it’s very humbling,” Brown said in a statement when asked about the meaning of the Fellows selection.

” The magnitude of being in the company of so many industry giants, including Turing Award and Nobel Prize winners, is still sinking in.  The thought that what I’ve contributed can be compared in any way to their work makes me want to redouble my efforts to create something lasting.”

IBM operates one of its newest global data centers at its campus in RTP.

“Kyle has been a leader across IBM for 20 years in developing innovative architectural  approaches that enable clients to adopt new technologies,” an IBM spokesperson notes. 

“Kyle has led the development of architectural patterns that help clients realize the potential of IBM’s offerings. He has led multiple first-of-a-kind engagements, extracting technical best practices and building consulting teams. Kyle is a recognized leader in cloud, Java and Agile development, and the author of nearly 100 articles and 10 books.”

Brown was one of eight Fellows named on Thursday. They work in cognitive computing, analytics, cloud, quantum computing, Internet of Things, healthcare and materials science.

The Fellows program dates back to 1963 which the program was launched by Thomas J. Watson, Jr. THe company has honored 297 Fellows, five of whom were Nobel Prize winners.