Michael Hawley
Encyclopedia
Michael Hawley is an educator, artist and researcher working in the field of digital media. Previously at MIT’s Media Laboratory
MIT Media Lab
The MIT Media Lab is a laboratory of MIT School of Architecture and Planning. Devoted to research projects at the convergence of design, multimedia and technology, the Media Lab has been widely popularized since the 1990s by business and technology publications such as Wired and Red Herring for a...

 where he was a professor and held the Alexander W. Dreyfoos, Jr.
Alexander W. Dreyfoos, Jr.
Alexander W Dreyfoos, Jr. is an American entrepreneur and philanthropist living in West Palm Beach, Florida. After graduating from the MIT Sloan School of Management in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1954 and Harvard Business School in 1958, he founded Photo Electronics Corporation, a company...

 endowed chair, Hawley is the founder or co-founder of several major research programs and projects including MIT's GO Expeditions program, Things That Think, Toys of Tomorrow, Counter Intelligence (a culinary research effort), and founder of the nonprofit organization Friendly Planet. He notably was the scientific director of the American Expedition on Mount Everest in 1998, one of the first major scientific expeditions on Everest. Hawley's work has been featured in major media such as National Geographic, Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...

, the New York Times, and on numerous television networks. His work at MIT has, in his own words, “sought to creatively stretch digital infrastructures, embedding intelligence into all sorts of artifacts and advancing the web of communications.”

Biography

Hawley was born in November 1961 and grew up in New Providence, NJ, a suburb of New York City. He graduated New Providence High School
New Providence High School
New Providence High School is a public high school in the borough of New Providence, in Union County, New Jersey, operating as the only high school in the New Providence School District, serving students in grades 9 through 12. New Providence High School opened on September 8, 1958 with its first...

 in 1979. As a teenager he had a job at Bell Labs
Bell Labs
Bell Laboratories is the research and development subsidiary of the French-owned Alcatel-Lucent and previously of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company , half-owned through its Western Electric manufacturing subsidiary.Bell Laboratories operates its...

 (Murray Hill, New Jersey
Murray Hill, New Jersey
Murray Hill is an unincorporated area within portions of both Berkeley Heights and New Providence, located in Union County in northern New Jersey, United States....

), working in the linguistics department. He did his undergraduate work at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

 in the areas of music and computer science; he went on to do his doctoral work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...

 (MIT). In the early 90's, while working at NeXT
NeXT
Next, Inc. was an American computer company headquartered in Redwood City, California, that developed and manufactured a series of computer workstations intended for the higher education and business markets...

, he was key in the development of the world's first digital library, creating digital versions of Shakespeare and other classics. From 1993-2002, he was on the faculty at MIT as the Dreyfoos chair, and from there he became Director of Special Projects at MIT's Media Laboratory. His work and research have spanned the topics of psychology, computer music, digital video editing, human-computer interfaces, documentary photography, and more.
Hawley is also a pianist and organist. He won first place, tying with Victoria Bragin, at the third International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs, hosted by the Van Cliburn Foundation
Van Cliburn Foundation
The Van Cliburn Foundation is host to the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, the International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs™, Musical Awakenings® education programs, and Cliburn Concerts.-Mission:...

 in 2002. His teachers have included Earl Wild
Earl Wild
Royland Earl Wild was an American pianist widely recognized as a leading virtuoso of his generation. Harold C. Schonberg called him a "super-virtuoso in the Horowitz class". He was known as well for his transcriptions of classical music and jazz...

 and Ward Davenny, and he has performed solo recitals, chamber concerts and appeared as soloist with major orchestras. Notably, his competition pieces included his own piano arrangement of Leonard Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from "West Side Story". He also accompanied cellist Yo-Yo Ma
Yo-Yo Ma
Yo-Yo Ma is an American cellist, virtuoso, and orchestral composer. He has received multiple Grammy Awards, the National Medal of Arts in 2001 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011...

 in performing the wedding march at the marriage of TV host and scientist Bill Nye
Bill Nye
William Sanford "Bill" Nye , popularly known as Bill Nye the Science Guy, is an American science educator, comedian, television host, actor, mechanical engineer, and scientist...

 and musician and author Blair Tindall
Blair Tindall
Blair Alston Mercer Tindall is an American oboist, performer, producer, speaker, and journalist.-Early life and education:Tindall was born in Chapel Hill, North Carolina to American historian George Brown Tindall and Carliss Blossom McGarrity Tindall...

 at Richard Saul Wurman’s 2006 The Entertainment Gathering convention. He was prominently featured in the 2010 documentary Bach & Friends.

Hawley directs the EG Conference held annually in Monterey, California
Monterey, California
The City of Monterey in Monterey County is located on Monterey Bay along the Pacific coast in Central California. Monterey lies at an elevation of 26 feet above sea level. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 27,810. Monterey is of historical importance because it was the capital of...

.

Personal life

Hawley and Cambodian-born Nina You were married in Bhutan in a traditional Bhutanese blessing ceremony held at Kyichu Lhakhang
Kyichu Lhakhang
Kyichu Lhakhang, is an important Himalayan Buddhist temple situated in Lamgong Gewog of Paro District in Bhutan.-History:...

, a 7th century temple that is considered to be one of the most sacred sites in Bhutan. Previously, he and Nina eloped privately in Venice, Italy.

Their dog, Tashi, is a bjob-chi from Bhutan. All but unknown outside of the Himalayas, this working breed is an ancient Bhutanese mountain form of Tibetan mastiff and for thousands of years has been the loyal family dog of high-altitude peoples like the Brokpa seminomadic yak herders of Merak and Sakteng.

Hawley and You reside in the oldest church in East Cambridge, a state-registered historic landmark dating from 1827.

Notable works

Bhutan: A Visual Odyssey Across the Last Himalayan Kingdom
Bhutan: A Visual Odyssey Across the Last Himalayan Kingdom
Bhutan: A Visual Odyssey Across the Last Himalayan Kingdom is a gigantic 2003 book composed of photographs taken on four trips through Bhutan. The book was created by scientist Michael Hawley along with photographers Carolyn Bess, Sandy Choi, Dorji Drukpa, Becky Hurwitz, Choki Lhamo Kaka, Gyelsey...

(2003)
The world's largest published book, a photo documentary of the kingdom of Bhutan
Bhutan
Bhutan , officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked state in South Asia, located at the eastern end of the Himalayas and bordered to the south, east and west by the Republic of India and to the north by the People's Republic of China...

.


Michael Hawley's Bhutan (2003) - http://web.media.mit.edu/~mike/0305-ngs-bhutan.pdf
Article and photos for National Geographic.


Counter Intelligence (2001) – http://www.media.mit.edu/ci
Integrating high technology into the kitchen to foster a return to the “hearth” as the center of family life.


Toys of Tomorrow (2002:ended) - http://toys.media.mit.edu
Exploring and implementing technologies with several major toy companies to improve the way children learn and play.


Things That Think (2000) - http://ttt.media.mit.edu
Sponsor-driven effort to develop digitally augmented objects and environments.

Advisory and founding roles

  • Board of Directors, SiOnyx - http://www.sionyx.com
  • Board of Directors, Eastman Kodak
    Eastman Kodak
    Eastman Kodak Company is a multinational imaging and photographic equipment, materials and services company headquarted in Rochester, New York, United States. It was founded by George Eastman in 1892....

     - http://www.kodak.com
  • Board of Directors, Color Kinetics - http://www.colorkinetics.com
  • Founder, Friendly Planet - http://web.media.mit.edu/~mike/fp/bhutan
  • Board of Directors, Rutgers Institute of Jazz Studies - http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/libs/jazz/jazz.shtml
  • Advisory Board, TTI/Vanguard
    TTI/Vanguard
    TTI/Vanguard is an advanced technology conference series for senior-level executives. Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, TTI/Vanguard explores emerging and potentially disruptive technologies and their global impact. Five times annually, corporate and government leaders, entrepreneurs,...

     - http://www.ttivanguard.com
  • Fellow/Trustee, Jonathan Edwards College
    Jonathan Edwards College
    Jonathan Edwards College is a residential college at Yale University. Established in 1932, it is the oldest of Yale's residential colleges. Members of the Yale community refer to it informally as J.E....

    , Yale University
    Yale University
    Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

     - http://www.jonathanedwardscollege.com
  • Founding US Editor, Personal and Ubiquitous Computing
    Personal and Ubiquitous Computing
    Personal and Ubiquitous Computing is a peer-reviewed scientific journal that was established in 1997. It covers original research on ubiquitous and pervasive computing, ambient intelligence, and handheld, wearable and mobile information devices, with a focus on user experience and interaction...

     - http://www.springerlink.com/content/1617-4917

External links

  • http://web.media.mit.edu/~mike/fp/bhutan
  • http://www.media.mit.edu/ci
  • http://toys.media.mit.edu
  • http://ttt.media.mit.edu
  • http://www.colorkinetics.com
  • http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/libs/jazz/jazz.shtml
  • http://www.ttivanguard.com
  • http://www.jonathanedwardscollege.com
  • http://web.media.mit.edu/~mike/0305-ngs-Bhutan.pdf
  • http://www.springerlink.com/content/1617-4917
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