Michael Schl/iter was truly an international scientist. His mother tongue was German, and he spoke French and English with only a hint of an accent. He was educated in Germany, Switzerland, and the United States, and he was known throughout the scientific world for his accomplishments in science as well as his talent as a communicator of science. Michael was "good at everything.". He was athletic and excelled at tennis, skiing, and windsurfing. He could fix automobiles and had mechanical abilities which were uncharacteristically good for a theorist. He was an effective science administrator who communicated sound judgement in science and personnel matters to those above and below him on the administrative ladder. Although Michael was a hard worker, he appeared to accomplish things without effort. His natural skills allowed him to be both broad and deep, a dedicated scientist, and an "all round" human being.
Michael was born on February 23, 1945, in Straubing, Germany, and received his undergraduate degree in physics from Karlsruhe Technical University in 1969. He then joined Professor Emanuel Mooser's experimental group at Ecole Polytechnique Federale in Lausanne, Switzerland, and did a theoretical Ph.D. thesis on the electronic structure of layer compounds. He stayed on to serve as an Assistant and did teaching in addition to his research in 1972-1973. In 1973, Michael joined my theory group as a postdoctoral researcher and had an exceptionally productive two years in Berkeley. His earlier association with Mooser's experimental group sensitized him to the importance of having contact with data and experimentalists. This characteristic of Michael's style was evident throughout much of his career and is demonstrated by his popularity as an advisor to experimental researchers. I remember wondering at the time about how Michael would function in a group in which only theory was done and whether he would like it. It was at that point that I learned first-hand about Michael's wonderfully flexible and adaptive skills and personality. He began interacting and collaborating almost immediately with my research students, other postdoctorals, and the faculty. Since he had studied our techniques when he was a student, he had no trouble starting research almost instantaneously. In fact, we collaborated on 34 papers (almost all were done in Berkeley -a few were completed after Michael left Berkeley).
When Michael moved to Bell Laboratories, it was the custom to offer only postdoctoral positions to young theorists. However, it was easy for me to argue that Michael was exceptional, and the group at Bell Labs was sufficiently perceptive to bend the rules. Hence, Michael joined Bell Labs as a permanent member of the technical staff in 1975. He began taking on administrative responsibilities with promotions to head various departments at AT&T: Condensed State Physics in 1986, Theoretical Physics Research in 1990, and Semiconductor Physics Research in 1992. Michael's success and potential in administration were recognized by AT&T, and he was given the opportunity in 1990 to spend three months participating in an executive education program at the Harvard Business School.
Michael Schltiter's contributions to science are numerous and cover a wide range of topics. His early studies on electronic structure remained a central part of his research effort throughout his career. The Berkeley period expanded his scope to include surfaces, interfaces, defects, adsorbates, and studies of pseudopotentials. At Bell Laboratories, he greatly expanded his research in the area of defects. He did seminal studies of density functional theory, pseudopotentials, and quasiparticle excitations. In more recent years, he added semiconductor clusters, high Tc oxides, and fullerene-based solids to his repertoire. It was the latter work which brought him to the 4th NEC Symposium.
Despite a valiant battle by Michael, the wonderful support of his family and friends, and the best that modern medicine had to offer, the symptoms associated with the brain cancer which claimed his life steadily worsened. However, Michael was determined to go on working and functioning as a scientist. Last summer, we began discussing "being together in Japan" since Michael was determined to attend the NEC Symposium. It took great courage and a strong will to accomplish this task in his state of health. It is a great tribute to him that he accomplished his goal. The help and support of the conference organizers were essential and exceptional. At