Prof Robert Morris

Prof Robert Morris is presently Chief Technology Strategist and Chief Data Officer at the Ministry of Health Office for Healthcare Transformation (MOHT), Singapore, and holds a concurrent appointment as Professor, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore.

His current focus is on the application of computer and information sciences, including AI, to transform healthcare. MOHT has developed and deployed several major programmes which are based on sensing patient data and then using both AI and providers to safely deploy interventions. One of these, mindline.sg, has been visited by about 20% of Singapore’s population. 

Until 2017, Robert led all of IBM Research’s Global Laboratories. Prior to that, Robert was head of the IBM Almaden Research Center in Silicon Valley, where relational database technology and the disk drive were invented. During this time, he led the creation of Services Science, research for IBM’s ThinkPad, and Storage Systems. Earlier he led advanced systems research at TJ Watson Center (New York), including the Deep Blue chess machine, which defeated world champion Garry Kasparov in 1997. Originally from Australia, he began his career at Bell Labs pioneering neural networks and packet switching.

Robert was Chairman, Bay Area Science and Innovation Consortium (BASIC) 2001-2005, comprising heads of major research institutions in Silicon Valley. He has been awarded 14 patents, published over 100 scientific articles, and recently published the book “Healthcare Transformation using Artificial Intelligence”, Elsevier, Academic Press, 2025. He was Editor IEEE Trans. on Computers, received the Fulbright and Gowrie Fellowships, PICMET Leadership in Technical Management Award, Fellow IEEE, IBM Academy of Technology, Member Government University Industry Research Roundtable (US National Academies).