About ATL

Throughout the 11 years I’ve headed up Adobe’s Advanced Technology Labs (ATL), I’ve been proud of all the great achievements that have come out of our group, and each one only makes me more excited about those still to come.

Our goal in ATL is to create innovative technologies that can be incorporated into our software products for consumers, creative professionals, developers, and enterprises. While that mission sounds simple enough, it takes a special mix of committed leadership, passionate employees, and trust in the creative process to make it all happen.

We start by bringing together the smartest, most driven people we can find, and then we allow them the freedom to nurture their intellectual curiosity, while providing them with the necessary resources and support to shape their ideas into tangible results.

Sometimes that result becomes an individual product feature that literally revolutionizes the way our customers work — a feature like Live Paint in Adobe Illustrator that has helped millions of graphic artists unleash their own imaginations. Other times, an early nugget of an idea forms the basis for an entirely new product like Adobe LiveCycle Policy Server, which companies around the world are trusting to exchange their most sensitive information while collaborating in a global environment.

Of course, Adobe’s research and development activities aren’t limited to ATL. For example, each business unit invests a significant amount of R&D into supporting their upcoming product releases. What makes our work in ATL unique, however, is that we have the benefit of looking beyond the next release, or even the one after that, which gives our researchers an invaluable opportunity to delve into the "non-obvious." This approach fosters a climate of innovative freedom that has time and again delivered the type of cutting-edge research that has helped build Adobe’s reputation as a pioneer in technologies as diverse as digital imaging and secure documents.

Another important aspect of ATL’s mandate is to champion innovation throughout the company. Our group has launched (and, in some cases, continues to sponsor) several company-wide initiatives, such as the Idea Mentor and Research Sabbatical, to achieve that goal.

While the majority of our work is focused on supporting our business, some of our team members also participate in outward-facing research within the broader scientific community. These projects involve shoulder-to-shoulder collaboration between ATL employees, faculty, and students at a dozen different academic institutions, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Washington, and Brigham Young University. By extending our reach beyond our own walls, ATL benefits from a continual infusion of fresh ideas and new approaches that ensure we maintain a stimulating environment for our own in-house researchers.

Through all our efforts, ATL is committed to developing innovative technologies that will advance Adobe’s mission to revolutionize how the world engages with ideas and information.