You hear Bernie Meyerson before you see him-a stream of words fired from behind his office door. Then the man steps forth: bushy mustache, curly hair, sharp eyes, a human whirlwind.

If there's a poster child for IBM Research these days, it's Meyerson. Bristling with energy and drive, he makes things happen-embodying the changes that are bringing the organization, once a hallowed name in R&D, back from its near-death experience of the early 1990s. When IBM officially dropped a long-unfruitful line of semiconductor research, he conspired with a few key managers and colleagues to go underground, borrowing equipment and calling in chits to keep his project alive. Today, the novel silicon-germanium technology his team invented is delivering processors for cell phones and communications networks with lower power and double the speed of conventional rivals-leaving competitors eating IBM's dust.