I learned of Michael's death, and I am shocked and horrified. Michael and I worked together from 1988 to 1994 at the Technische Hochschule Ilmenau (later the Technical University of Ilmenau). Michael finished his doctoral thesis a year earlier than I did. He had created many appendices in his thesis, which allowed the main body of the work to be read fluently while providing further information in the appendices as needed. I found the idea brilliant. We talked a lot about politics in the years 1989/1990. The discussions with Michael were always interesting and offered a bird's-eye perspective. However, Michael not only had an excellent overview of politics, but also of mathematics. Through him, I was introduced to many new mathematical approaches. Michael was a very hardworking man who lived for science. I have his first book on Mathematica (written on a NeXT computer) as a loose-leaf collection in my cabinet, and I still look into it from time to time. I came to know Michael as a person who was always friendly and never moody. I would have loved to continue working with him, but his path led him to the USA; I remained in Germany. Michael, I hope that we will meet again in a later life. I would certainly be very happy about that.

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.

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.

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.

My condolences to the family and friends of Michael. I only briefly interacted with him during the Wolfram Tech. Conf. and during the corona crisis on the fluid mechanics of droplets. I always enjoyed it when he joined a livestream. What I remember most fondly are his amazing and long Wolfram blog posts, still wonderful to read. But I also used his wolfram demonstrations countless times.

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Thank you for honoring Michael in your post Mads.

I have been astonished over the years (ever since I received my copies of the Mathematica Guidebooks) at his prodigious and prolific contribution to Computational Knowledge. I for one would be very pleased if his legacy and contributions to Wolfram Research was recognised by creating a Chair in his name at Wolfram University and a Fellowship in his name at the Wolfram Institute. Perhaps you could propose this to Stephen. Cheers … Syd Geraghty

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.