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MIT Professor Michael L. Dertouzos dies at 64;
IT pioneer who made technology accessible

AUGUST 29, 2001
Contact Information
 
      

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- MIT Professor Michael L. Dertouzos, who had a rare gift
for putting complicated technology into human terms and making it accessible
to non-technical audiences, died Monday night (Aug. 27) at Massachusetts
General Hospital. Born in Athens, Greece, Dertouzos was 64.

Dertouzos joined the MIT faculty in 1964 and became director of the MIT
Laboratory for Computer Science (LCS) in 1974. Under his leadership, LCS
became one of the largest research labs at MIT with 400 faculty members,
graduate students, and research staff. LCS dedicated itself to the
invention, development and understanding of information technologies, always
within the context of their human utility.

"We made a big mistake 300 years ago when we separated technology and
humanism," Dertouzos said in an interview in Scientific American. "It's time
to put the two back together."

MIT President Charles M. Vest said, "Michael was larger than life. He was at
once a leader, builder, visionary and caring human being. Few individuals
have so personally and profoundly shaped their institutions and professional
fields. Yet he did so in a manner that respected and involved all of his
colleagues. I will miss his personal friendship and counsel very much."

"Michael was a leader in every sense of the word. He knew how to motivate
people; he was passionate about his work and passionate about the people he
worked with. For many of us, this is more like losing a family member than
losing a colleague," said John V. Guttag, head of the department of
electrical engineering and computer science at MIT.

LCS members and alumni have been instrumental in the development of numerous
innovations, among them time-shared computers, RSA encryption, the X Window
system, the ArpaNet and the Internet. Most recently, LCS spearheaded the $50
million Oxygen project in 1999 in conjunction with MIT's Artificial
Intelligence Lab. Oxygen is intended to make computers easier to use, "as
natural a part of our environment as the air we breathe."

Victor W. Zue, associate director of the Lab, commented, "Michael fervently
believed that developing technology is not enough by itself. One must also
strive to demonstrate that it is good for something. Under his stewardship,
LCS has been mindful of balancing technical excellence with social
relevance."

The Lab is currently the North American home of the World Wide Web
Consortium (W3C), an open forum of companies and organizations that helps
promote the Web's evolution and ensure its interoperability. Dertouzos was
instrumental in bringing the W3C and its director, Tim Berners-Lee, inventor
of the World Wide Web, to LCS.

Tim Berners-Lee said, "If it hadn't been for Michael, there would not
probably have been a World Wide Web Consortium. He was a spring of
enthusiasm, capability, insight, and experience which drove a half-formed
idea of W3C into an international reality. Ever since, Michael's strength of
leadership, clarity of thought and warmth of heart have been a constant
support and nourishment and inspiration. He will be dearly missed."

In the LCS director's statement, Dertouzos wrote with characteristic
enthusiasm for human progress through technology: "We feel extraordinarily
privileged to have a hand in shaping the Information Revolution -- the third
major socioeconomic movement of our world.

"But our quest goes beyond utilitarian increases in human productivity to
the broader ways in which information can help people. We find ourselves in
the junction of two interrelated challenges: Going after the best, most
exciting forefront technology; and ensuring that it truly serves human
needs. It is this mixture of forefront technology and human utility that is
the hallmark of LCS research."

Professor Harold Abelson of electrical engineering and computer science, who
co-authored a paper with Dertouzos, said: "Michael was a leader of mythic
proportions, both at MIT and worldwide. Much of what we take for granted in
computing at MIT -- including Project Athena and the World Wide Web
Consortium -- is a direct result of his leadership, his vision, and his
entrepreneurial skill." Dertouzos played a key role in creating Project
Athena, which he suggested be named after the Greek goddess of wisdom.

Stephen A. Ward, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science
at LCS and a former doctoral student of Dertouzos, said, "Michael Dertouzos
brought a unique combination of intuition, humanity, and style to our
faculty. Michael's impact on MIT and his mentorship of students and
colleagues stand as an indelible monument to his leadership, vision and
personality. He will be remembered as one of the greats of MIT and computer
technology." 

Dertouzos, whose father was an admiral in the Greek navy, was raised in
Greece. His earliest memories were of war-torn Athens and of people starving
in the streets, an experience that deeply affected him for the rest of his
life. 

As a teenager, Dertouzos dreamed of going to MIT, but when he won a
Fulbright scholarship it was to the University of Arkansas, where he earned
the BS and MS degrees. After selling soft drinks and working with
shaft-angle encoders at Baldwin Piano, he applied to the MIT doctorate
program. Upon receiving the Ph.D. in electrical engineering in 1964, he
joined the faculty as an assistant professor and became a full professor in
1973. 

True to the MIT spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship, Dertouzos holds
patents on a graphical display system, an incremental photoelectric encoder,
a graphic tablet, and on a parallel thermal printer.

A PROLIFIC AUTHOR ON HUMANS AND COMPUTERS

Dertouzos is the author of eight books. His latest, "The Unfinished
Revolution: Human-Centered Computers and What They Can Do for Us"
(HarperCollins), published this year, introduced the concept of "human
centered computing." Computers, he wrote, should serve people, not the other
way around. Today's machines are overloaded with excessive features,
inadequately address our needs, and demand too much of our attention, he
declared. 

"Michael argued eloquently for human-centered computing. He thought deeply
about how information technology could help everyone, not just the technical
elite," said Guttag.

In the best-selling "What Will Be" (HarperCollins), published in 1997 when
the Internet was first beginning to take hold, he wrote about the many ways
in which information technology would transform our lives.

In 1986, Dertouzos was asked to chair the MIT Commission on Industrial
Productivity, to examine why US firms were losing competitiveness to their
overseas industrial rivals. The result was "Made in America," co-authored by
Richard K. Lester and Robert M. Solow (MIT Press), which became one of the
most influential business books of the 1980s, with over 300,000 copies in
print. 

"Michael's books were one example of his educational skills. He was fearless
in entering the arena of other pundits attempting to forecast the future of
computers and their application. Among his colleagues he was known for his
concern for the big picture," said Fernando J. Corbató, professor of
electrical engineering, emeritus, at MIT, and the inventor of time-shared
computing. 

AN EYE TO THE FUTURE

An avid sailor and woodworker, Dertouzos spent much of the past quarter
century studying and forecasting future technological shifts -- in
describing, for experts and ordinary citizens alike, what could be. In 1976,
he predicted the emergence of a PC in every 3-4 homes by the mid-1990s. In
1980, he first wrote about the Information Marketplace, a vision of
networked computers that has transformed the world economy.

An eloquent speaker, who was admired for his integrity and his disdain for
hype, Dertouzos was frequently sought out by the media, industry and
government agencies for his expertise and insight on the relationship
between computers and their human users.

During the Carter Administration, Professor Dertouzos chaired a White House
advisory group that redesigned the White House information systems. In 1995,
he represented the US in a delegation to the G7 Conference on the
Information society. In 1998, he was co-chairman of the World Economic Forum
on the Network Society in Davos, Switzerland.

"Michael had a broad understanding of technology and a teacher's knack for
explaining ideas. One direction in which this shone was his skill in
interfacing with government sponsors of research. He was skillful in evoking
the best research ideas from within the laboratory; he could educate without
being condescending," Corbató said.

In his final interview, printed in the August 22 issue of the Chronicle of
Higher Education, Dertouzos spoke about the qualities that he most valued in
teachers, qualities which were a fundamental part of his own approach to his
interactions with the MIT community:

"Don't forget the impact that love has on education," Dertouzos said in
explaining his skepticism of computer-based distance education. "If you are
loved by your teacher -- and I mean this in the most innocent and Platonic
sense -- if your teacher really cares for your well-being -- and you know
that because your teacher will ask about you, will scold you for not doing
the right thing, and will give you stories about why you should do this or
do that -- the learning can be unbelievably different."

Dertouzos, a resident of Weston, married Hadwig Gofferje in 1961. They
divorced in 1993. In 1998 he married Catherine Liddell, who survives him
along with his two children, Alexandra Dertouzos Rowe and Leonidas M.
Dertouzos of Boston, and a granddaughter, Kiera Ann Rowe.

A funeral service will be held in Athens on September 4th, followed by a
memorial service at MIT. In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to Athens
College, 342 Madison Avenue, Suite 16161, New York, NY, 10173.




--END--

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CONTACT: 
Patti Richards
Senior Communications Officer, MIT
Phone: 617-253-8923
Email: prichards@mit.edu


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