Michael Hawley
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2020}}
{{Short description|American educator, artist and researcher (1961–2020)}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Michael Hawley
| image = Mike-hawley-cambodia.jpg
| caption = Michael Hawley in Siem Reap 2002
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1961|11|18}}
| birth_place = Camp Pendleton, California, U.S.
| death_date ={{death date and age|2020|6|24|1961|11|18}}
| death_place = Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
| nationality =
| field = Computer Science
| alma_mater = Yale University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
| doctoral_advisor = Marvin Minsky
| known_for =
| spouse = Nina You
| children = 1
| prizes = Tetelman Fellow, Van Cliburn competition, Kilby International Awards
}}
Michael Jerome Hawley (November 18, 1961 – June 24, 2020) was an American academic and artist working in the field of digital media. Previously at MIT’s Media Laboratory where he was a professor and held the Alexander W. Dreyfoos, Jr. endowed chair, Hawley was the founder or co-founder of several major research programs and projects including MIT's GO Expeditions program, Things That Think, Toys of Tomorrow, Counter Intelligence (a culinary research effort), and founder of the nonprofit organization Friendly Planet. He notably was the scientific director of the American Expedition on Mount Everest in 1998, one of the first major scientific expeditions on Everest. Hawley's work has been featured in major media such as National Geographic, Time, The New York Times, and on numerous television networks. His work at MIT has, in his own words, “sought to creatively stretch digital infrastructures, embedding intelligence into all sorts of artifacts and advancing the web of communications.”
Biography
Hawley was born in November 1961 at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, and grew up in New Providence, New Jersey. He graduated New Providence High School in 1979.Laurans, Penelope. [https://alumni.yale.edu/news/what-university-michael-hawley-1961-2020 "What is a university for?: Michael Hawley, 1961-2020"], Yale Alumni, July 2, 2020. Accessed April 19, 2021. "I have known of Mike ever since he applied to Yale in 1979 from New Providence High School in New Jersey." As a teenager he had a job at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, working in the linguistics department. He did his undergraduate work at Yale University in the areas of music and computer science; he went on to do his doctoral work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In the early 1990s, while working at NeXT, he was key in the development of the world's first digital library, creating digital versions of Shakespeare and other classics.{{Cite news|last=Metz|first=Cade|date=June 24, 2020|title=Michael Hawley, Programmer, Professor and Pianist, Dies at 58|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/24/technology/michael-hawley-dead.html|access-date=June 25, 2020|issn=0362-4331|url-access=limited}}{{Dubious |reason=Project Gutenberg digital library was started in 1971|date=September 2016}} From 1993-2002, he was on the faculty at MIT as the Dreyfoos chair, and from there he became Director of Special Projects at MIT's Media Laboratory. Musical work from this period appeared on a CD, Computing Systems Usenix Music, distributed as a supplement to the journal Computing Systems.{{cite journal|last=Langston|first=Peter S.|author2=Hawley, Michael|year=1990|title=Computing Systems Usenix Music|journal=Computing Systems|volume=3|issue=2|issn=0895-6340}} Michael's work and research have spanned the topics of psychology, computer music, digital video editing, human–computer interfaces, documentary photography, and more.
Hawley was also a pianist and organist. He won first place, tying with Victoria Bragin, at the third International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs, hosted by the Van Cliburn Foundation in 2002.{{cite web | url = http://www.cliburn.org/amateur-competition/past-amateur-competitions/third-2002/ | title = Third International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs | publisher = Van Cliburn Foundation | url-status = dead | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20130512074945/http://www.cliburn.org/amateur-competition/past-amateur-competitions/third-2002/ | archivedate = May 12, 2013 }} His teachers have included Earl Wild and Ward Davenny, and he has performed solo recitals, chamber concerts and appeared as soloist with major orchestras. Notably, his competition pieces included his own piano arrangement of Leonard Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from "West Side Story". He also accompanied cellist Yo-Yo Ma in performing the wedding march at the marriage of TV host and scientist Bill Nye and musician and author Blair Tindall at Richard Saul Wurman’s 2006 "The Entertainment Gathering" conference (EG1).{{cite web | url = https://www.the-eg.com/eg1/program | title = Archive: EG1 Program | publisher = EG Conference | year = 2006 | url-status = dead | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20120114080147/http://www.the-eg.com/eg1/program | archivedate = January 14, 2012 }} Hawley also directed EG3 in Monterey, California, in 2008.{{cite web | url = https://www.the-eg.com/presenters/michael-hawley | title = Biography: Michael Hawley – EG Director, Pianist | publisher = EG Conference | year = 2008 | url-status = dead | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20130429014146/http://www.the-eg.com/presenters/michael-hawley | archivedate = April 29, 2013 }} He was prominently featured in the 2010 documentary Bach & Friends.{{cite web | url = http://www.mlfilms.com/productions/bach_project | title = Bach Project | publisher = Michael Lawrence Films}}{{cite web | url = http://www.mlfilms.com/productions/bach_project/mike_hawley | title = Bach Project – Mike Hawley| publisher = Michael Lawrence Films}}
He was the scientific director of an expedition to Mount Everest in 1998.
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Personal life
Image:Michal-safdie-mjhawley.jpg
Hawley and Cambodian-born Nina You were married in Bhutan in a traditional Bhutanese blessing ceremony held at Kyichu Lhakhang, a 7th-century temple that is considered to be one of the most sacred sites in Bhutan. Previously, he and Nina eloped privately in Venice.
Hawley and You resided with their son in a historic church in Cambridge where he owned three pianos.
Their dogs, Tashi and Karma, are Bjop-chi mastiffs from Bhutan. Virtually unknown outside the Himalayas, this working breed is an ancient Bhutanese mountain form of Tibetan mastiff and for thousands of years has been the loyal family dog of high-altitude peoples like the Brokpa seminomadic yak herders of Merak and Sakteng.
Hawley died on June 24, 2020, from colon cancer, at his home in Cambridge.
Notable works
- Bhutan: A Visual Odyssey Across the Last Himalayan Kingdom (2003) – The world's largest published book, a photo documentary of the kingdom of Bhutan.{{cite web | url = http://web.media.mit.edu/~mike/fp/bhutan/index.php | title = FACT SHEET: MIT and FRIENDLY PLANET Present BHUTAN --- the World's Largest Published Book | publisher = MIT Media Lab | url-status = dead | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20130113065350/http://web.media.mit.edu/~mike/fp/bhutan/index.php | archivedate = January 13, 2013 }}
- "Michael Hawley's Bhutan" (2003) – Article and photos for National Geographic's Traveler magazine.{{cite journal | url = http://web.media.mit.edu/~mike/0305-ngs-bhutan.pdf |journal = Traveler | date = May–June 2003 | first = Michael |last = Hawley | title = Place of a Lifetime: Bhutan}}
- Counter Intelligence project (2001:ended){{cite web | url = http://www.media.mit.edu/ci | title = counter intelligence | publisher = MIT Media Lab}} – Integrating high technology into the kitchen to foster a return to the “hearth” as the center of family life.
- Toys of Tomorrow project (2002:ended){{cite web | url = http://toys.media.mit.edu | title = Toys of Tomorrow | publisher = MIT Media Lab}} – Exploring and implementing technologies with several major toy companies to improve the way children learn and play.
- Things That Think project (2000) - Sponsor-driven effort to develop digitally augmented objects and environments.{{cite web | url = http://ttt.media.mit.edu| title = Things That Think | publisher = MIT Media Lab}}
Advisory and founding roles
- Board of Directors, SiOnyx{{cite web | url = http://sionyx.com/about-sionyx/directors/ | title = About SiOnyx: Directors | publisher = SiOnyx Inc | accessdate = February 6, 2013 | url-status = dead | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20130122211357/http://sionyx.com/about-sionyx/directors/ | archivedate = January 22, 2013 }}
- Board of Directors, Eastman Kodak
- Board of Directors, Color Kinetics{{cite press release | title = COLOR KINETICS ELECTS JAMES F. O'CONNOR TO BOARD OF DIRECTORS | location = Boston, MA | date = June 10, 2004 | publisher = Color Kinetics Incorporated}}
- Founder, Friendly Planet
- Board of Directors, Rutgers Institute of Jazz Studies{{citation | url = http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/libs/jazz/jazz.shtml | title = Institute of Jazz Studies | publisher = Rutgers University}}
- Advisory Board, TTI/Vanguard{{cite web | url = http://www.ttivanguard.com/board/index.html | title = TTI/Vanguard's Advisory Board | publisher = TTI/Vanguard | accessdate = February 6, 2013}}
- Fellow/Trustee, Jonathan Edwards College, Yale University
- Founding US Editor, Personal and Ubiquitous Computing{{cite journal | title = Inaugural issue editorial: Future personal computing | first1 = David | last1 = Frohlich | first2 = Peter | last2 =Thomas | first3 = Mike | last3 =Hawley | first4 = Kenkichi | last4 =Hirade | year = 1997 | volume = 1 | number = 1 | pages = 1–5 | doi=10.1007/BF01317881 | journal=Personal Technologies| s2cid = 31043926 }}
References
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External links
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- {{cite web | url = http://web.media.mit.edu/~mike | title = Mike Hawley | publisher = The Media Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology}}
- {{cite web | url = http://web.media.mit.edu/~mike/about/bio.html | title = Mike Hawley's bio bits | publisher = The Media Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology}}
- {{cite web|url=http://web.media.mit.edu/~mike/about/cv.html|title=Faculty Personnel Record: Michael Jerome Hawley|last=|first=|date=|website=|publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning|access-date=}}
- {{cite web |last=Simon |first=Scott |authorlink=Scott Simon |title=Opinion: Remembering Michael Hawley, Remarkable Polymath And Exceptional Friend |website=NPR.org |date=2020-06-27 |url=https://www.npr.org/2020/06/27/884213457/opinion-remembering-michael-hawley-remarkable-polymath-and-exceptional-friend}}
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Category:Deaths from colorectal cancer in Massachusetts
Category:New Providence High School alumni
Category:People from New Providence, New Jersey
Category:People from San Diego County, California
Category:American computer programmers
Category:American photographers
Category:Photography in Bhutan