John Mayo Named Head of Bell Labs

John S. Mayo, a career researcher and executive at American Telephone & Telegraph’s Bell Laboratories, on Monday was named the seventh president of the Bell Labs, the world’s largest privately funded research facility.

Mayo, 61, who began his career with the Bell Labs in 1955 as a member of the research team that produced the first transistorized digital computer, succeeds Ian M. Ross.

Ross, president of the Bell Labs since 1979, was named to a new position responsible for speeding development of AT&T;’s international business operations. Ross, 64, plans to retire next year in accordance with AT&T;’s mandatory retirement policies.

Mayo assumes the top spot at a time of increasing efforts to use the Bell Labs’ vast resources to directly aid AT&T;’s telecommunications and computer businesses. In the past, the Bell Labs, whose scientists are among the top recipients of U.S. patents, fostered less-structured, less-business-related research.

However, since the breakup of AT&T; and the emergence of stiff competition in the long-distance market from MCI and US Sprint, AT&T; has been demanding that research projects be more focused on business applications. Some projects not meeting that criterion have been canceled in recent years.

Mayo said his primary goal will be to accelerate development of new telephone and computer related products and services based on the work conducted by the hundreds of scientists at AT&T;’s research facilities, most of which are in New Jersey.