Michael M. May

Michael Melville May (born Michel Meyer-May; December 23, 1925 – May 17, 2026) was a French-born American theoretical physicist, nuclear weapons designer and arms control expert. He served as the fifth director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) from 1965 to 1971, and later as co-director of the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) at Stanford University. Over a career spanning more than half a century, May shaped U.S. nuclear deterrence strategy and arms control policy, contributing to thermonuclear weapons design, the development of supercomputing at LLNL, and high-level negotiations including the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT).

Early life and education Michel Meyer-May was born in Marseille, France, on December 23, 1925, to Juliette Trarieux May and Jacques Meyer-May. His mother was a granddaughter of Ludovic Trarieux, a French senator and human-rights pioneer. His father was a physician and medical geographer whose work in tropical medicine took the family across continents, including several years in French Indochina (present-day Vietnam), where Jacques May trained Vietnamese doctors.

He spent much of his childhood in Paris, where he thrived in the French academic system despite losing more than a year to complications from polio. At age 12, he and his family relocated to Hanoi. In 1940, as World War II engulfed Europe, his mother emigrated with May and his siblings to Walla Walla, Washington. He was 14 years old. He graduated from high school at age 15.

May went on to earn degrees in mathematics and physics from Whitman College in 1944, at the age of 18. He became a U.S. citizen in 1944.

Following his undergraduate studies, May was drafted into the U.S. Army and served from 1944 to 1946. He chose to train as a paratrooper and participated in weapons testing during his service.

After his discharge, May pursued graduate study, first at the University of Washington and later at the University of California, Berkeley, where he completed a Ph.D. in physics in 1952. His dissertation, titled A Study of the Properties of V⁰-Particles, examined particles produced by cosmic rays—particles now known as kaons. His time at Berkeley coincided with the Loyalty Oath controversy, which led several of his faculty mentors to leave the university.

May joined LLNL's Theoretical Physics Division, where he focused on theoretical calculations for thermonuclear weapons. He became a group leader and later alternate division head. He was among the first scientists at the Laboratory to explore the use of high-speed computing to advance physics modeling, contributions that strengthened LLNL's reputation as a technically innovative institution. By 1962, he had been appointed Associate Director for Nuclear Design. 1979 Distinguished Public Service Medal, U.S. Department of Defense 2002 Presidential Medal, University of California 2014 Joseph A. Burton Forum Award, American Physical Society 2019 Alumni of Merit Award, Whitman College

May was also a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Pacific Council on International Policy, and the International Institute for Strategic Studies.