The IBM Almaden Research Center is in Almaden Valley, San Jose, California, and is one of IBM's twelve worldwide research labs that form IBM Research. Its scientists perform basic and applied research in computer science, services, storage systems, physical sciences, and materials science and technology. The center opened in 1986, and continues the research started in San Jose more than fifty years ago. Nearly all of Almaden’s approximately 500 research employees are in technical functions and more than half of these hold Ph.D.s. The lab is home to ten IBM Fellows, ten IBM Distinguished Engineers, nine IBM Master Inventors and seventeen members of the IBM Academy of Technology.