Michael R. Douglas received his bachelor’s degree in Physics from Harvard University in 1983 and his PhD from Caltech in 1988 under the supervision of John Schwarz. Douglas is a string theorist, best known for his part in the development of matrix models, and for his work on noncommutative geometry in string theory, on Dirichlet branes and their relation to derived categories, and on the statistical approach to string phenomenology. Before coming to help start the Simons Center in 2008, Douglas was at Rutgers University where he was Professor of Physics and Director of the New High Energy Theory Center. He was awarded the Sackler Prize in Physical Sciences, and was a Louis Michel Visiting Professor at the IHES and a Clay Mathematical Institute Mathematical Emissary. He is a fellow of the American Mathematical Society and a member of the American Physical Society, and has served as the editor of the Journal of High Energy Physics and of Communications in Mathematical Physics. Douglas has organized many workshops at the Simons Center including ‘String Theory for Mathematicians’, ‘Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Field Theory’ and ‘String Phenomenology.’
