An Extraordinary Life: Joliet native was ‘a bonafide rocket scientist’

Joliet attorney Dan Adler didn’t recall former classmate Michael Micci’s passion for science.

Michael, a professor of aerospace engineering at Penn State College of Engineering in Pennsylvania, who died on Sept. 21 at the age of 66, first developed his love for science while growing up in Joliet and attending former Joliet Catholic High School, now Joliet Catholic Academy.

But Dan did say Michael was always “very smart.”

“He had straightforward thinking and he had plans for his future,” Dan said.

Michael’s obituary said one research that spanned Michael’s entire career examined microwave electrothermal thrusters for satellites, which utilizes water as an inexpensive and clean propellant.

In 2019, this research culminated in a test flight by Momentus Space, which demonstrated that satellites in orbit can be maneuvered inexpensively by water vapor plasmas, his obituary also said.

In the last few years, Michael also taught himself quantum computing to try to solve large difficult solutions to configurations - such as the solution of Navier-Stokes around an airfoil, his obituary said.

Michael’s wife Cathy Cohan also called Michael a “Renaissance M n” due to his love of literature and live theater. Michael had played a role in “Pride and Prejudice,” the class play his senior year at Catholic High, and in a commercial for Enviro Pest Control in 2018.

“He lived life to the fullest,” Cathy said. “He took opportunities.”

Michael was also Catholic High’s salutatorian in 1972, Cathy added. But his love for science is undisputed.

“His specialty was rocket propulsion,” Cathy said. “He was a bonafide rocket scientist.”

Cathy said the U.S. space program “back when scientists were rock stars,” contributed to Michael’s overall love for science, she said.

“I think he was home sick the day of the moon landing,” Cathy said. “So he got to watch it.”

Michael also competed in national and international model rocket competitions during his high school and college years, winning gold medals for his model rockets.

He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He completed a Ph.D. in the department of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton University.

The focus of Michael’s doctorate was on rocket propulsion, and the title of his dissertation was “Solid propellant response functions deduced from forced longitudinal waves in solid rocket motors,” his obituary said.

Michael them joined Penn State’s department of aerospace engineering in 1981 as an assistant professor. In 1988, Micci was promoted to associate professor and in 1998 he received full professor rank, according to an Oct. 8, 2020 article in the Penn State College of Engineering News.

During his tenure with the department, Micci taught aerospace topics ranging from dynamics and control to programming to spacecraft environments, the article said.

Additionally, in 1994, Micci was the first person to use molecular dynamics to simulate supercritical atomization and vaporization as it occurs in high performance liquid rocket engines, the article said.

Cathy met Michael in in December of 1998 as they waited to board their planes to go home for the holidays. Michael was coming home to Joliet; Cathy was heading to California.

“Our planes left from adjacent gates, so we stood there and chatted,” Cathy said. “And then we had our first date in January of 1999.”

Cathy said Mike was very well-read. He loved literature (science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke especially inspired him) and plays, and he read fiction voraciously. He also liked to discuss politics.

“He was interested in so many things,” Cathy said. “He was always the smartest guy in the room, very sharp.”

In later years, Mike also took acting lessons and improvisational comedy class. Cathy was especially proud of these classes because Michael was shy and reserved on the surface, she said.

“It’s scary to put yourself out there like that,” Cathy said.

Michael continued pursuing model rocketry into adulthood. She recently saw a photo of Michael from 1985 in Jambol, Bulgaria in 1985. He was preparing for a rocket glider flight at the 6th World Spacemodeling Championships (WSMC) as part of the U.S. team, Cathy said.

However, Michael did let the model rocketry and competitions go during the years he and Cathy raised their children: Sofia and Carmen.

“He took it back up in the last five years and competed in meets several years ago, domestic meets, not international meets,” Cathy said. “He had a home workshop and spent a lot of time tinkering with his model rockets.”

Michael also loved international travel, one of the ways Cathy’s life changed when she married him, she said. She enjoyed experiencing the food, wine, and overall culture of other countries, she said.

“And the experience of seeing the world through the perspective of another culture,” Cathy said.

That travel often coincided with Michael’s work, such as attending conferences for rocket or space propulsion, Cathy said.

Before he’d met Cathy, Michael had taken a sabbatical in France, working as a research scientist in the Office Nationale d’Études et de Recherches Aérospatiales in Paris, France.

So the notion of other sabbaticals didn’t faze Cathy. After they were married, Michael became a visiting professor at the University of London, Queen Mary.

“So we packed up the kids and lived in North London for a year,” Cathy said.

Michael was also a visiting scientist at the Air Force Office of Scientific Research in Washington, D.C. and a Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) senior research associate at the Air Force Research Laboratory at Edwards Air Force Base in California, according to the article from Penn State.

He was also an NRC senior research associate at the Air Force Research Laboratory in Maui, Hawaii from 2013 to 2014, according to Sven Bilén, head of the School of Engineering Design, Technology, and Professional Programs and professor of engineering design, electrical engineering and aerospace engineering.

Sven said he had known of Michael when Sven was a graduate student at the University of Michigan and met Michael for the first time in 1999 at a joint propulsion conference.

After Sven transitioned into Penn State, he and Michael because excellent collaborators and close friends, Sven said. He said Michael was reserved at first and more open once he got to know people.

“He had a very dry sense of humor,” Sven said. “He also had a very sharp mind, which allowed us to talk through a topic and discuss things.”

Cathy said Michael was diagnosed with bladder cancer in February of 2020 and worked during treatment. He did well until September, when his health took a sudden downturn.

Up until then, “he was pretty optimistic about it,” Cathy said.

It was the suddenness that especially took Sven by surprise. All summer, Michael had “Zoomed” on group lab meetings, he said.

“He had been working and engaging the students,” Sven said.

But when Sven checked in on Michael when he was hospitalized and asked if he was doing OK, Michael answered, “No,” Sven said.

“Then I got the message a week that his wife was taking him home for hospice,” Sven said. “I felt very fortunate to be able to go and see him that week in person. The next Tuesday he was gone. He went very fast.”

Sven said Michael was hoping to keep building on his areas of research after he retired, which Michael had planned to do in December 2020. So now Sven is hoping to further Michael’s legacy by continuing that building.

He can’t find the right word – humbling wasn’t it, he said – to describe watching 40 years of a man’s life work unfold before him.

“You talk about impact,” Sven said. “He certainly had a lot of impact in people’s formative years in their careers.”

Cathy would agree. She said Michael taught at Penn State for nearly 40 years. One required course attracted approximately 100 students each year. Multiplying those 100 students by 39 years makes it easy to see the impact Michael had on student, Cathy said.

You don’t even need to be a rocket scientist to figure it out.

Cathy said she’s talked to student who’ve graduated and are “out in the world” working. Some admitted to not being the most dedicated students and praised Michael’s kind mentorship at turning that around.

“‘He took me on a student, and I have found my passion,’” Cathy said, quoting one student. “‘I have a career in aerospace engineering now. And I couldn’t be more grateful.’”

The Michael Micci Student Research Fund will support undergraduate and graduate space research activities and the Michael Micci Graduate Student Award will provide financial support for graduate students pursuing space propulsion.

• To feature someone in “An Extraordinary Life,” contact Denise M. Baran-Unland at 815-280-4122 or dunland@shawmedia.com.