Remembering Stephen Goldman, ’an institution’ at MIT

Faculty and staff recall Goldman's unending commitment to his work for more than three decades. Last fall, Stephen "Steve" Goldman passed away at 59 after a courageous battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Prior to his passing, Goldman had worked at MIT for more than 30 years, first with Information Systems and Technology, then for the Computational and Systems Biology Initiative, and then in the Department of Biology. "Steve was an institution," says Stuart Levine, director of the BioMicro Center in the biology department and Goldman's supervisor for more than a decade. According to Levine, Goldman was the type of person who had his "whole being" wrapped up in the job: "He did a little bit of everything, and that's really hard to find these days." Steve Goldman was one of the first hires for the fledgling BioMicro Center, according to former supervisor Peter Sorger, whose is now the Otto Krayer Professor of Systems Pharmacology in the Department of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School. Goldman, Sorger says, was essential for setting up the Department of Biology's first server-based computing system. "He brought great enthusiasm and skill to the role, and I also appreciated his sangfroid and sense of humor.