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Michael Douglas

Senior Scientist, Center of Mathematical Sciences and Applications, Harvard University
Michael Douglas
Center of Mathematical Sciences and Applications, Harvard University
Michael Douglas received a PhD in physics in 1988 under John Schwarz, one of the developers and leading researchers in superstring theory.

He spent a postdoctoral year at the University of Chicago, then moved to Rutgers University in 1989 with Dan Friedan and Steve Shenker to help start the New High Energy Theory Center (NHETC).  He held faculty positions at Rutgers and the NHETC directorship until 2008, taking a year-long break in 1997-1998 to try out a permanent position at the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques.

In 2008, he moved to Stony Brook University to become the first permanent member of the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics.  He left academia in 2012 to become a researcher at Renaissance Technologies, and returned to academia in 2020. These days he develops uses of artificial intelligence in science as a senior scientist at the CMSA, Harvard University. Prof. Douglas received the 2000 Sackler Prize in theoretical physics.  He is very active in organizing scientific workshops and schools and in philanthropy for science, and served as the Chairman and President of the Friends of IHES from 2013-2021.