Biography

Abu Sebastian is a distinguished scientist and manager at IBM Research - Zurich in Rüschlikon, Switzerland. He was born in Kerala, India. He received a B. E. (Hons.) degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from BITS Pilani, India and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering (minor in Mathematics) from Iowa State University.

Dr. Sebastian is the author/co-author of over 200 publications in peer-reviewed journals/conference proceedings and holds over 80 US patents. He is a co-recipient of the 2009 IEEE Control Systems Technology Award and the 2009 IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology Outstanding Paper Award. In 2013 he received the IFAC Mechatronic Systems Young Researcher Award for his contributions to the field of mico-/nanoscale mechatronic systems. In 2015 he was awarded the European Research Council (ERC) consolidator grant and in 2020, he was awarded an ERC Proof-of-concept grant. He is an IBM Master Inventor since 2016. He was named Principal and Distinguished Research Staff Member in 2018 and 2020, respectively.

In 2019 he received the Ovshinsky Lectureship Award for his contributions to 'Phase-change materials for cognitive computing'. In 2023, he received the Prof. L. K. Maheshwari Foundation Distinguished Alumnus Award from BITS Pilani, India. In 2023, he was also conferred the title of Visiting Professor in Materials by University of Oxford. He has served on the technical program committees of several conferences including IEDM, AICAS, NVMTS and E\PCOS and has served as an editor/guest editor for Mechatronics, APL Material, Applied Physics Letters, and IEEE Design and Test. He is a Distinguished Lecturer and Fellow of the IEEE.