caption doctoral_advisor birth_place birth_date known_for image article_title name
michael douglas at rutgers university john h. schwarz baton rouge , louisiana 19 november 1961 work on string theory landscape michael-douglas-at-rutgers . jpg michael r. douglas
 michael r. douglas
michael r. douglas

michael r. douglas -lrb- born november 19 , 1961 -rrb- is an american theoretical physicist and professor currently at stony brook university .
douglas was born in baton rouge , louisiana , the son of nancy and ronald g. douglas , a mathematician specializing in operator algebras .
he received his bachelor 's degree in physics from harvard university .
he then went to caltech and received a ph.d. in physics in 1988 under john schwarz , one of the developers and leading researchers in superstring theory .
after completing his ph.d. , douglas was a postdoc at the university of chicago for one year , then moved to rutgers university in 1989 with dan friedan and steve shenker to help start the new high energy theory center -lrb- nhetc -rrb- .
he was promoted to assistant professor in 1990 but spent his first year visiting the École normale supérieure and the mit artificial intelligence laboratory .
he became an associate professor at rutgers in 1995 , and left for a year in 1997-1998 to take up a permanent position at the institut des hautes Études scientifiques .
he then returned to rutgers and in 2000 became the director of the nhetc .
in 2008 , douglas moved from rutgers to become the first permanent member of the simons center for geometry and physics , a research center at stony brook university .
douglas is best known for the development of matrix models -lrb- the first nonperturbative formulations of string theory -rrb- , for his work on dirichlet branes and on noncommutative geometry in string theory , and for the development of the statistical approach to string phenomenology .
he was on the team -lrb- led by gerald j. sussman -rrb- that built the digital orrery , a special-purpose computer for computations in celestial mechanics , and maintains an active interest in computer science .
he is also very active in organizing schools and workshops , for example at les houches , cargese , and the kitp santa barbara .
douglas received the 2000 sackler prize in theoretical physics , holds a louis michel visiting professorship at the institut des hautes Études scientifiques , and has been a gordon moore visiting scholar at caltech , and a clay mathematics institute mathematical emissary .
in 2012 he became a fellow of the american mathematical society .
douglas is married and has two children .
his wife , nina ilieva douglas , is an author and illustrator of children 's books .
