On March 11, 2020, Microsoft separated two responsibilities that had been closely associated: Eric Horvitz became the company’s first companywide chief scientific officer, while Peter Lee succeeded him as leader of Microsoft Research. Lee also retained his Microsoft Healthcare and research-incubation responsibilities. The move followed Harry Shum’s departure and gave Microsoft distinct leaders for broad scientific strategy and day-to-day research-organization leadership.
What Microsoft announced on March 11, 2020
Microsoft made two linked appointments, not one general change to its AI hierarchy.
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| Executive | 2020 appointment | Primary scope |
|---|---|---|
| Eric Horvitz | Microsoft’s first companywide chief scientific officer | Cross-company scientific direction, emerging trends, opportunities and issues involving science, technology and society |
| Peter Lee | Leader of Microsoft Research | Worldwide research organization, while continuing healthcare and incubation work |
| Kevin Scott | Assumed responsibilities associated with Harry Shum’s broader remit after Shum left | Companywide technology and AI leadership context |
Contemporaneous reporting described the appointments and Shum’s transition here. Lee replaced Horvitz as head of Microsoft Research; he did not directly replace Shum, who had already left Microsoft in February 2020.
What the chief scientific officer role was intended to do
Horvitz described the new position as a cross-company role covering scientific advances and trends, along with opportunities and issues at the intersection of science, technology and society. His explanation appears in his first-person account of the appointment.
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That remit points to scientific strategy and foresight rather than management of a single laboratory. Horvitz said the role would help shape Microsoft’s activities, investment priorities, attention and understanding of longer-term developments and possible surprises. AI remained central, but he also listed biology, medical informatics, physics, sustainability, economics, and the social and behavioral sciences.
In practical terms, the position could give Microsoft a senior scientific voice able to look across product groups, research units and public-interest questions. It was not announced as a conventional laboratory-director job.
Why Eric Horvitz was a credible choice
Horvitz joined Microsoft in 1993 as a principal researcher. Before becoming chief scientific officer, he was a technical fellow and director of Microsoft Research Labs, after leading Microsoft Research for roughly three years.
His research spans machine perception, learning, reasoning, decision-making, human-computer interaction and the computational foundations of intelligence. Microsoft’s research profile also reflects work relevant to the human and social consequences of AI. That combination made him more than an AI specialist: he had experience with both the technical foundations of intelligent systems and the societal questions surrounding their use.
The phrase “first chief scientific officer” needs a qualification. Microsoft had previously used scientific-leadership titles inside Microsoft Research; for example, a 2010 announcement referred to Rico Malvar as chief scientist of Microsoft Research. The 2020 claim concerned the first companywide chief scientific officer, not the first scientific title anywhere in Microsoft.
What changed for Microsoft Research under Peter Lee
Lee took over the worldwide research organization while keeping responsibility for Microsoft Healthcare and related incubation efforts. GeekWire identified contemporaneous initiatives associated with that portfolio, including Research Canvas, Healthcare NExT and Foundry99. Those names describe responsibilities reported at the time, not a guarantee that the programs would retain the same structure later.
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This arrangement connected Microsoft Research more closely with healthcare, life sciences and research-backed business incubation. It could make movement from basic research to applied medical or commercial work easier, although Microsoft did not state that commercialization was the formal purpose of the appointment. It also meant Microsoft Research was not Lee’s only executive responsibility.
Peter Lee’s background
Lee joined Microsoft in 2010 after 22 years at Carnegie Mellon University, where he was a professor and head of the computer science department. He also held a technology leadership role at DARPA involving machine learning, data science and computational social science. Before leading Microsoft Research, he was associated with Microsoft’s healthcare and life-sciences initiatives.
Microsoft’s current biography for Lee describes his later position as President, Microsoft Science, with a focus on accelerating discovery in the physical, biological and medical sciences through AI and other emerging technologies. That later title should not be substituted for his March 2020 title, but it shows the direction of his subsequent portfolio.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How the appointments fit Microsoft’s AI organization
The 2020 change followed several years of combining research with product and engineering work. In September 2016, Microsoft announced an AI and Research Group that brought Microsoft Research together with organizations including Bing, Cortana, Information Platform, ambient computing, robotics and machine-learning efforts. Microsoft said the group contained more than 5,000 computer scientists and engineers at that time; the figure described that 2016 organization, not a permanent headcount.
In 2017, Microsoft discussed Microsoft Research AI as a research and incubation hub intended to reconnect machine learning, perception and natural-language processing. Its broader post referred to approximately 7,500 people in the expanded group, a different date and organizational scope. The announcements are documented in Microsoft’s 2016 strategy post and 2017 discussion of AI, people and society.
Against that background, the 2020 appointments are best understood as a refinement of leadership responsibilities:
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- Horvitz took a broad, cross-company view of science, long-term trends and societal implications.
- Lee led Microsoft Research while linking it with healthcare and incubation work.
- Scott carried the wider technology and AI responsibilities associated with Shum’s former role.
The available reporting supports a leadership transition and role separation, not a claim that Microsoft published a wholly new AI-division chart.
What the split could mean
A clearer companywide scientific voice
A chief scientific officer can scan across business units instead of concentrating on one research organization. Horvitz’s stated remit, which extended beyond AI, gave Microsoft a senior mechanism for considering developments in fields such as biology, physics, sustainability and social science.
Strategic and operational duties separated
Horvitz could focus on scientific direction, emerging issues and long-range questions while Lee managed Microsoft Research and his existing applied portfolios. That division can make accountability clearer, although the titles may initially confuse readers who assume the chief scientific officer automatically runs the research labs.
Closer science-to-application links
Lee’s healthcare and incubation work created an evident bridge between research and medical or commercial programs. The likely benefit was faster contact between researchers and application teams; the trade-off is a harder question about preserving long-horizon, basic research when an executive also has near-term business responsibilities.
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Horvitz did not disappear from Microsoft Research. In his account of the appointment, he described remaining engaged with the research community, so the move was not a clean break between him and the labs.
Later titles and how to read them
Microsoft’s later profiles identify Horvitz as Chief Scientific Officer and Lee as President, Microsoft Science. Those are subsequent titles, not the wording of the March 2020 announcement. For the original event, the accurate distinction remains: Horvitz became the first companywide chief scientific officer, and Lee took over Microsoft Research while retaining healthcare and incubation duties. Horvitz’s later profile is available here.
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