Fermilab TodayFriday, January 13, 2006  
World-Class Physicist and MINOS Champion Dies at 45
Michael
Doug Michael was a MINOS co-spokesperson.
Stan
Stan Wojcicki reads a letter from Michael at NuMI / MINOS Dedication.
Doug Michael, a neutrino physicist and MINOS co-spokesperson, died on December 25, 2005 after a year-long battle with cancer. "He was big physically, and he was also larger than life," said Fermilab theorist Boris Kayser, who worked with Michael on the APS neutrino study. "Anybody who knew Doug knew he was a ball of fire."

Michael grew up in Arizona and graduated from Stanford University with a degree in physics in 1982. It was there that he designed, built and operated a Nal (TI) and plastic scintillator experiment at SLAC's electron-positron collider along with classmate Jim Thomas. Such an undertaking was unheard of for undergraduates. By 1990, Michael had earned his doctorate at Harvard University (where he met his life partner of 23 years, Matthew McLaughlin), and joined the MACRO experiment at Caltech, where he contributed to the search for magnetic monopoles at an underground laboratory near Gran Sasso, Italy. During his time there, Michael became interested in an emerging neutrino mystery: anomalies in the ratio of electrons to muons that came from high energy neutrinos in cosmic rays. In 1994, he proposed a design to study a possible explanation for how neutrinos might change form, or "oscillate," as they move through space. Many ideas in Michael's proposal were used in the subsequent MINOS neutrino experiment at Fermilab, which now includes about 150 scientists from institutions around the world. Since then, Michael has worked on every aspect of MINOS. "Every project he worked on was incredibly successful," said MINOS colleague Regina Rameika of Fermilab. "Some people might have sat down after one success and said 'I'm done with my part, you deliver to me now.' Instead, Doug jumped back in and asked what the next big battle was." After Michael brought the detector's $22-million scintillation system beyond its design goals, he focused on the task of delivering more protons to MINOS. Stanley Wojcicki of Stanford, the MINOS co-spokesperson, remembers Michael as "a real problem solver and a born leader. Someone who could challenge, inspire and lead people towards a common goal."

Michael's colleagues say he was curious, honest and extremely capable. "Doug had this style, panache. He did everything with a flourish," said Columbia University neutrino physicist Janet Conrad, who has known Michael since graduate school. Though he had expertise in everything from physics to gourmet cooking, she noted that he also had a good sense of humor. "He was fun to be with, he just had a zest for life," she said. Caltech colleague Hai Zheng said, "I still remember the day when he brought a big cup of Jell-O to the office as he was exploring his 'Jell-O detector' idea. It was those childlike twinkles of excitement in his eyes that kept the fire burning within our group." According to former Stanford classmate Tim Bolton, "Doug lit up the room" with his enthusiasm and his interesting turns of phrase. "I still credit him with inventing what is still one of my favorite terms, when something was amiss, Doug would say 'this reeks of bogosity,'" he said.

The most repeated memories of Michael involved his generosity. "Doug did not do or say things just to advance his own position," said Kayser. "He even went to bat for experiments other than his own." According to Conrad, "Doug had no fear of appreciating other people's physics. You always felt he was completely supportive of what you wanted." She remembers when she first met Michael: she was an undergraduate at Harvard and he was a graduate student working on the same project. "A friend introduced him as the 'Human Wrench' because he liked to fix things with his hands," Conrad said. Through twenty-two years of friendship, Conrad often thought of this apt nickname. "In a sense, he was a human wrench in more ways than one," she said. "Doug was incredibly strong and he helped people accomplish things they never could have achieved on their own."

Find out how to send donations to the Lymphoma Research Foundation in Doug Michael's memory by clicking here.
—Siri Steiner

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