Group Abstract Group Abstract

Message Boards Message Boards

In Memory of Michael Trott (1959-2025): Scientist, Mentor, Friend

enter image description here

Michael Trott was more than a brilliant scientist, he was a mentor, a friend, and a truly unique human being. For those of us lucky enough to work closely with him, his absence leaves a deep void. He brought an irreplaceable blend of curiosity, creativity, and humility to everything he did. Our long meetings, where we'd dive into unconventional ideas in physics and find ways to implement them in Mathematica, often stretched past hours, but no one ever minded. With Michael, even the most abstract idea could spark a new direction, a novel prototype, or an unexplored corner of science.

He didn't just think outside the box, he rebuilt it entirely, quietly and kindly. His codes weren't always optimized for performance, but they were original and beautiful. I have never seen anyone so professional in prototyping novel ideas computationally; and this was our joint passion for Mathematica, as we believed it is one of the best tool, if not the best, for this purpose. One can find a few examples of Michael's style of thinking in the Wolfram Blog, Wolfram Demonstration Project, or Wolfram Community. He was also the author of four seminal books: "The Mathematica GuideBooks" (four volumes).

He had a deep grasp of the history and architecture of Mathematica, with a passion for physics, especially quantum theory, and a genius for applying technology in unexpected ways. Michael Trott joined Wolfram Research in 1994 and was a cornerstone of the company for over 30 years. As Chief Scientist of Wolfram|Alpha, his fingerprints are on thousands of algorithms and innovations, from computational art to physical constants, from parsing human input to building bridges between theoretical physics and computation. The Wolfram Quantum Framework, as a small example, would not have been possible without his support and contributions.

Michael was encyclopedic in knowledge, yet endearingly humble. He read hundreds of papers, built massive daily digests on LLMs, mentored researchers across physics, math, and engineering; and still worried whether he had anything "original" to offer before a scheduled talk at the University of Vienna (see the material he'd prepared for this talk from this link; we even had a dry-run together, to discuss the content repeatedly). His presence was magnetic. He showed up early to Zoom calls (Wolfram Research has many remote employees, including myself, even before COVID pandemic) and sparked thoughtful conversation before meetings began. He didn't just build things but he shared them generously. He brought humanity to everything he touched. Whether discussing quantum fields or life under East Germany's Stasi, he made space for your story too. He helped others grow, quietly and consistently, always leading by example.

Toward the end, we spoke about the multiverse; you were certain we'd meet again. In those final days, lying in your hospital bed, we found ourselves deep in conversation about the quantum-to-classical transition and nonlinearities. Thank you, Michael, for everything. You showed so many of us what it truly means to be both a scientist and a human being.

POSTED BY: Mohammad Bahrami
17 Replies

After meeting Theo and Stephen back ‘in the beginning’ Michael was one of the first people I met at Wolfram who left a very serious impression on me - as a scientist and as a personality. He grilled me on the elegance of functional programming, we joked about write-only languages.

I only just learned about his passing from Paul, yesterday.

I’m surprised and truly heartbroken. I have nothing to add that hasn’t already been wonderfully said.

POSTED BY: Flip Phillips
Posted 1 month ago

Thank you for this post. I knew Michael by reputation for many years through his blog, his books and various other contributions. He always seemed like a wizard to me; one of those people who knew a lot about everything.

I met him at various Wolfram community events over the years (I think in Avignon, 2006 was the first time maybe) and he was kind, engaging and fun to be around.

I am saddened by his passing. He was a great guy.

POSTED BY: Mike Croucher

So sad to hear of Michael's passing. He is one of the people I felt really lucky to have overlapped with, such a lovely and creative person as many have attested.

POSTED BY: Andrew Moylan
Posted 1 month ago

Michael’s passing is a profound loss. I had the privilege of working alongside him at Wolfram’s Champaign office on Wolfram|Alpha. My first professional encounter with Michael, together with Oleg Marichev, was helping me learn all about special functions for a project I was working on. I can only echo what everyone else has expressed: Michael was absolutely brilliant. He always seemed to know the answer, exactly where to look, or instantly recognized if a problem remained unsolved. His role as Chief Scientist of Wolfram|Alpha genuinely reflected the immense breadth and depth of his knowledge.

Beyond his incredible intellect, Michael was among the kindest people I’ve ever known and he was a mentor to me in every sense. He was remarkably approachable, his office was always open. Even if he was briefly tied up, he’d circle back promptly, ready to help or guide. His exceptional consistency, thoroughness, and task management profoundly influenced my professional growth. Observing him manage numerous projects efficiently, kind of like a weighted round robin, addressing quick tasks immediately before seamlessly returning to deeper work, was especially inspiring and instructive. Even after leaving Wolfram Research, I explicitly tried to emulate these qualities in all my subsequent roles. I firmly believe I wouldn’t be where I am today if I hadn’t done this.

About 10 years ago Michael knew I was working a paper regarding various computations involving the Mertens function. By coincidence he happened to have a few weeks access to a supercomputer through The Texas Advanced Computing Center. He thought of me and my paper and offered access, which let me compute many values of ZetaZero and Zeta’ to high precision. He also gave me ideas on how to analyze the data, one of which made it into the paper.

Michael’s playful approach to life could be seen by his choice in license plates, EXP IPI2 and later COS PI17. Inspired by him, I ended up choosing VOXEL for my own plate a few years back.

Another special memory is how Michael diligently scanned through recent academic papers, thoughtfully forwarding relevant discoveries to colleagues, myself included. Even after my departure, I continued receiving these thoughtful emails. The last paper he shared a few months back provided insights into the asymmetry of human lungs, and I still share tidbits from that paper with my colleagues today.

I am profoundly grateful to have known Michael Trott and to have had him as a mentor. His passing is a tremendous loss, both personally and to the world at large.

POSTED BY: Greg Hurst
Posted 1 month ago

I am deeply saddened to hear of Michael's passing. Michael was a brilliant scientist, highly-respected colleague, and, in my humble opinion, the world's preeminent Mathematica programmer. I was extremely lucky to work with Michael in the very early days of Wolfram Alpha. Even after nearly 20 years, Michael remained the smartest, most brilliant person I've had the pleasure of working alongside. Above all, Michael was a gentleman.

POSTED BY: Sam Blake
POSTED BY: Paul Abbott
POSTED BY: Sander Huisman
POSTED BY: Udo Krause
POSTED BY: Udo Krause
POSTED BY: Unal Goktas
Posted 1 month ago

POSTED BY: Ed Pegg
POSTED BY: Willy Hereman
Posted 1 month ago
POSTED BY: Syd Geraghty
Posted 1 month ago
POSTED BY: Girish Arabale
Posted 1 month ago

I used to read all of Michael's entire blog. Thanks to him for everything. It's too bad I didn't get to talk to him in person.

POSTED BY: Kirill Belov

Thank you Mads for this post. I learned a great deal from Michael Trott. He surprised me every single time I ask him a question, his response was incredibly quick, concise, and exactly what I needed.

I always try hard to be available when needed at work and be hard worker but watching Trott in action constantly reminded me how much room I still have for improvement.

Mads, you were fortunate to have been so close to him—I wish I had been too. The news hit me very hard.

RIP Michael Trott.

POSTED BY: Ahmed Elbanna
Reply to this discussion
Community posts can be styled and formatted using the Markdown syntax.
Reply Preview
Attachments
Remove
or Discard