Microsoft Corp has said it will not confirm or deny claims made in the UK press at the weekend that it is setting up its first research center outside of the US in Cambridge, UK. The centre will apparently be linked with Cambridge University and run on a commercial basis. Microsoft president and chief executive Bill Gates is thought to be making a personal donation, and to be in talks with the University to establish a professorship. If this is the case he would be joining Charles Simonyi, Microsoft’s head of programming who funds the Charles Simonyi chair of the public understanding of science at the rival Oxford University. The company’s research is currently headed by Nathan Myhrvold who studied under Professor Stephen Hawking, professor of mathematics at Cambridge and investigator on the Cosmos supercomputer project (CI No 3,165). Speculation suggests the company is trying to attract more European computer scientists and programmers, who seem to flock to the company’s campus in Redmond, Washington. If the plans get the go-ahead, work will start in the next few months.
