Colleagues Remember Physics Graduate Student After Fatal Crash

George Michail, a sixth-year graduate student in the Physics Department, died three weeks ago in Chicago from injuries sustained in a head-on car crash with a drunk driver two weeks earlier. He was 28.

Michail, his wife and two friends were returning from an evening out when their car collided at a turn in the road with a drunk motorist who had been traveling in the wrong lane for more than a mile, according to George Sarakinos, a close friend of Michail.

Professor of Physics Melissa E.B. Franklin, who was supervising Michail's research described him as "a really extraordinary guy. [He was] incredibly smart and nice and responsible."

At the time of the accident Michail and Stamatina Douki, who were married in the summer of 1995, were living in Neighborville, Ill., a Chicago suburb. Michail was completing his research at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Chicago.

Michail, who graduated first in his class at the University of Athens and received a masters degree from Harvard in 1994, was working toward his doctorate.

In Chicago, Michail was doing research on heavy-quark physics, colliding protons and antiprotons in order to study the oscillations of the bottom quark. He had nearly completed his research and was beginning to write his dissertation, Franklin said.

According to colleagues in the Physics Department, Michail had measured a physics constant known as the parameter of the oscillation of the B-meson system. His measurement is currently the most accurate yet made, and his results were presented last summer at the Summer Scientific Conference for High Energy Physics.

A native of Athens, Michail was active in the Harvard Hellenic Society (HHS), a University-wide group, during his years in Cambridge and was president of that organization from the winter of 1993 until he moved to Chicago in February 1994.

"George brought the Harvard Hellenic Society closer to the Hellenic community in Boston in general," said Sarakinos, who is a fifth-year graduate student in chemistry.

"During his term, the society really took off," Sarakinos said. "Lots of new activities took place."

Michail even convinced the newly-elected mayor of Athens to speak at Harvard at the end of 1994.

Michail devoted the little free time he had to the Greek community and to his friends, Sarakinos said.

"I can't recall him ever speaking badly about someone else," Sarakinos said. "He was really concerned about what was going on with Greek students at Harvard."

Even after Michail moved to Chicago to do on-site research at the Fermi Lab, he kept in touch with friends and colleagues in Cambridge and stayed up to date on developments within the HHS, Sarakinos said.

Michail was an avid sports fan. He closely followed the Greek soccer league and was a Chicago Bulls enthusiast.

Many of Michail's friends recently traveled to Athens for his funeral, which was held last Thursday. Michail's wife has moved back to Greece.

Maria Spyropoulou, a fourth-year physics graduate student who worked with Michail at the Fermi Lab, described him as a gentle individual.

"George was always happy, always smiling," she said. "He had a great sense of humor."

He was also very generous with his time, offering help to younger students, Spyropoulou said.

In keeping with Greek Orthodox tradition, a memorial service will be scheduled for roughly 40 days after Michail's death. The date had not yet been set. But Sarakinos, one of the organizers of the service, said he expects it to take place around November 10 at the Greek Orthodox Church of Saints Constantine and Helen in Central Square.

In addition, Professor Franklin and others have raised money to plant a tree in Michail's memory. The tree will be planted in front of the Lyman physics building in the spring.