In Memory of Doug Tygar

Professor Doug Tygar passed away unexpectedly on January 16, 2020.

Doug was a valued community member, teacher, and researcher. His work made unique and significant contributions to the fields of usable computer security, cryptography, privacy, and digital rights management. As a colleague, his sharp sense of humor, infectious laugh, and encyclopedic knowledge of all things Berkeley are irreplaceable. He will be sorely missed.

We invite you to share your memories of and tributes to Doug Tygar.

William H. Hsu
I just learned of Doug's passing. I never got to meet him, but we exchanged e-mail once in 1993 when I was applying to grad school, about an independent study project I had done on computer virus detection. At that time he was at CMU and I was surprised that a professor there would take the time to reply to an unknown undergrad about a summer project, much less put in a good word for him on applications. That really made an impression on me and it's one of the reasons I remained interested in cybersecurity even as I went into AI and machine learning research.

I'm sorry now that I never had the chance to see him in person to thank him for his kindness. Rest in peace to Doug, and condolences to all who knew and loved him.
January 18, 2020
Joseph Lorenzo Hall
I took a few classes from him in graduate school. One was a Networking class where he explained group key distribution in cable set-top boxes and it really opened my mind about cryptographic assurance.

One day, he went to clean the whiteboards. (He always needed very clean whiteboards and would clean them before each class if they weren't up to snuff.) While he was talking and cleaning he suddenly screamed and his Knagol driver's cap fell off.

What had happened is that he had the whiteboard cleaning solution spray nozzle pointed in the exact opposite direction for some reason. And the spray was perfectly bisected by his finger and two streams of whiteboard cleaning solution went directly into his eyes! We hurried to help him wash his eyes and class was cancelled.

Why does this stick out? It was a time when I was really questioning my decision to get a PhD. Everyone that seemed to do good work made few mistakes, let alone the pretty massive mistakes that I'm prone to. Doug humanized the academy for me, without reducing standards for good work.
January 18, 2020
Elaine Shi
Doug was my academic grandfather. Although I did not have a chance to work with him, he had been supportive of my research career and gave me encouragement in times that I most needed it. He was a lot of fun to interact with. Doug will be dearly missed.
January 17, 2020
Shankar Sastry
We have lost a real original in Doug. Of course his work in security was amazing and insightful. His work on privacy and usability were ahead of their times! Most of all I will miss him for his wry humor and his novel take on most things around him. He helped found and run our NSF cybersecurity STC for 10+ years and enhanced it through his substantive partnership with a consortium of Taiwanese universities and companies. Traipsing around Taipei with him was really an experience. I will miss him very much.
January 17, 2020
Jeff MacKie-Mason
I've not known Doug as well as many here you, but I've known him for 20 years. Doug and I co-chaired the second-ever ACM Conference on Electronic Commerce in 2000 (EC-2000; still running today, renamed as Economics and Computation). It was a delight getting to know Doug and learning from him much about the culture of computer science research conferences, in which I had only recently started participating. I greatly appreciated Doug's insistence on rigor and excellence, that was combined with his special sense of humor and pragmatism. Over the years before I came to Berkeley we kept engaging through this venue, as we both continued active on the SIG advisory board. Since arriving here, and trying to figure out the very idiosyncratic academic culture at Berkeley, I've greatly valued Doug's patient mentoring.

I will miss him.
January 17, 2020
Nick Merrill
Doug taught me cryptography in the first year of my PhD, setting me on the track I'm now on. I always saw him walk by the cafe I frequent, and I'd always point him out to other regulars. I will miss Doug dearly.
January 17, 2020
Angie Abbatecola
I am so sad. I shared office space and informally supported Doug administratively the past few years and I always enjoyed our conversations. He celebrated the silliness and irony of the way things work. He was a fierce supporter of students and staff alike. I will miss his laugh, his stories and his presence.
January 17, 2020
John Chuang
I first met Doug 24 years ago, when he was a young tenured Professor at CMU and I just started as a PhD student there. Doug was my first teacher for security and cryptography, through a specially arranged crash course for the members of the NetBill micropayment project that he co-led with Marvin Sirbu. It was from him that I learned about cryptographic protocols, symmetric and asymmetric key encryption algorithms, authentication schemes, and so on.

When I first arrived at South Hall as an assistant professor in 1999, Doug generously offered to co-teach INFO 206 with me for the first two years. From him I learned many invaluable lessons on teaching, grading, advising, and I got to witness his famous lectures with the Alice and Bob puppet shows and his dramatic ripping up of $20 bills to drive home the importance of the ACID properties in distributed transactions.

Over the years, I have learned so much more from Doug, from California history and Jewish culture to trans-Pacific flying tips. I have also learned a few things about Doug, things that he may not readily admit to himself, such as his love for his students that made him go the untold extra mile for them, his love for the School of Information, and his love for Berkeley his alma mater.

He will be dearly missed.
January 17, 2020
David Wagner
Doug was the founding member of the security group here at Berkeley and a valued colleague who supported me from early in my career. He enriched the security group with his wisdom, pragmatic perspective, and ready laugh. His work was seminal and groundbreaking, from helping launch the field of usable security, being one of the early pioneers leading the way on adversarial machine learning, and early work in several other fields. It's inspiring and amazing how many different fields he helped birth.

I have many fond memories of Doug: his talk on digital money where he asked for a $20 bill from a spectator and then promptly destroyed it (ok, I didn't see that coming) to illustrate the need for atomicity, his firm advocacy for securing Berkeley's internal payment systems to protect the privacy of employees (I think his strong support for the staff who uncovered this says something about his character), his lecture in CS 161 where he taught Diffie-Hellman key exchange by acting out a scenario where Alice and Bob (whose parts were played by teddie bears) wanted to send their most secret messages to each other (love letters voiced by Doug: "my dearest pookie-wookie", etc.), and his brilliant advice to students in their qual exams about how to present their work and advance their career was a learning moment for me. He truly touched many lives.

His untimely passing is a real loss. I feel fortunate to have had the chance to work with Doug for a large chunk of his career and richer for having known him, and I'm grateful for the legacy he has left us.
January 17, 2020
Xiao Qiang
I have held deep respect for Doug over our 9 year collaboration researching internet censorship and developing anti-censorship technology as CO-PIs of the Berkeley Counter-Power Lab Project. Doug’s commitment, knowledge and mentorship has been decisive for the success of this project, including nurturing students and researchers to become the leading technologists in the field of internet freedom. He also provided valuable support and guidance as a board member of China Digital Times, a bilingual news publication.

Doug was an outstanding computer scientist, teacher and a wonderful colleague. I will miss his friendship, generosity and wisdom, from which I have benefited and learned a tremendous amount over the years. I find some comfort from knowing Doug's work in the internet freedom field has benefited tens of millions of users around the globe, especially those living under autocratic regimes, including China. I remember the first time we met in South Hall in 2006. I remember our countless lunch conversations, laughs, arguments, and illuminations over the past 13 years.

I will miss him deeply.
January 17, 2020

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Last updated:

February 19, 2020