Microsoft Hires Yahoo! Researchers for New Lab

Microsoft is opening Thursday a research lab in New York City that aims to benefit from interaction with the academic and tech communities in the metropolitan area, as well as attract new talent to Microsoft, the company said.

To start with the lab has hired 15 researchers of which the majority, including David Pennock, the assistant managing director of the new lab, are joining from Yahoo Research, Jennifer Chayes, managing director of Microsoft Research New England who also heads the new Microsoft Research New York City, said in a blog post on Wednesday.

The New York lab has started to reach out to research universities in the area, including Columbia, New York University, the new Cornell-Technion NYC campus, Princeton, and Rutgers, to discuss ways to collaborate more closely, Chayes said.

The New York city researchers will become part of the Microsoft Research network of more than 850 Ph.D. researchers, focused on more than 55 areas of computing.