Online Memorial Service Held for Professor Athans

An online memorial service was held for Professor Michael Athans on July 9, 2020, 5-6:15pm (EST). Over 150 people — family, friends, former students, and colleagues — joined from around the world to honor his memory.

The event was coordinated by John Tsitsiklis, the LIDS Director and a PhD advised by Michael from 1981 to 1984, and Nils Sandell, a Cofounder of Alphatech. The services started with a slideshow and John’s welcome speech. John described Michael’s career at MIT and his impacts. Afterwards, a few people shared their experience of interacting with Michael. The list included Sean Athans (Michael’s son), Dick Wishner, Alan Willsky, Nils Sandell, Jason Papastavrou, Nuno Martins, Munzer Dahleh, Sol Gully, Yu Chi (Larry) Ho, David Kleinman, Sanjoy Mitter, Dimitri Bertsekas, David A. Castanon, Tony Tether, Isabel Ribeiro, Mike Telson and Stephen Athans Spodick (Michael’s son).

The memorial site for Michael is now up at https://athansmemorial.lids.mit.edu/. A recording of the memorial service, as well as photos and other materials provided by friends and family to commemorate Michael’s life and legacy, are available in this site.