Mathias B Steiner

Dr. Mathias Steiner is a physicist with 20+ years of industrial research and development experience acquired on three continents. In his work, he combines computational methods and lab experiments for developing and testing novel scientific tools. As a co-lead of IBM Research's Sustainability initiative, he explores the convergence of artificial intelligence, hybrid cloud, and quantum computing for accelerating materials discovery.

Mathias has initiated and managed multi-national collaborations with industrial and academic partners, leading to 200+ publications and open-science contributions that were cited and reused thousands of times. As research manager and principal investigator, he is a trusted resource for IBM’s executive leadership in identifying and delivering priority projects with strategic clients. In his global role, Mathias coordinates a team of 50+ researchers contributing out of IBM’s labs in Brazil, Switzerland, Japan, UK, and the US.

Mathias first joined IBM in Physical Sciences at the TJ Watson Research Center in New York, USA, in 2007, where he conducted groundbreaking research on functional materials in nanometer scale devices. He led the team that first reported electrically generated light emission in atomically thin, 2-dimensional semiconductors. In 2012, during his tenure in Services Computing, Mathias applied machine-learning techniques to develop risk management models for IBM’s IT Services Business. Since 2015, he is leading the Industrial Technology & Science area at IBM’s lab in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In 2017, Mathias established the first nanotechnology lab in the Brazilian IT industry with focus on applications in natural resources recovery, precision agriculture and healthcare. As chief architect of IBM’s FlowDiscovery and AgroPad tools, he led the R&D activites from inception to field testing and public release. Since 2020, Mathias’ research focusses on sustainability, in the context of industrial materials and processes.

Mathias is a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) in the Forum on Industrial & Applied Physics (FIAP) and a recipient of the Early Career Achievement Award of the International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE). In recognition of his sustained performance in IBM, he has received five Outstanding Technical Achievement Awards, as well as the Pat Goldberg Memorial Best Paper Award, and was appointed Master Inventor twice. As team leader, he has received the People Manager Exemplar Award twice. Mathias holds a doctorate in Physical Chemistry (2006), a diploma in Physics (2002), as well as a diploma in Business Administration (2013). Mathias is a member of APS, IEEE, and SPIE.