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.
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.
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.
I will miss him.
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.
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.
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.