Editing John C. Baez

{{Short description|American mathematician (born 1961)}}
{{about|the American mathematical physicist|the video-game programmer and creator of the video game "Alien Hominid"|The Behemoth}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2019}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name              = John C. Baez
| image             = John Baez, physicist (2009).jpg
| caption           = Baez in August 2009
| birth_name        = John Carlos Baez
| birth_date        = {{Birth date and age|1961|6|12|mf=yes}}
| birth_place       = San Francisco, California, U.S.
| death_date        = 
| death_place       = 
| residence         = <!--no country (or state) only  - only use if including city-->
| fields            = [[Mathematics]], [[mathematical physics]]
| workplaces        = [[University of California, Riverside]]
| education         = [[Princeton University]] ([[A.B.|AB]])<br>[[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] ([[PhD]])
| doctoral_advisor  = [[Irving Segal]]
| academic_advisors = 
| doctoral_students = [[Alissa Crans]]
| notable_students  = 
| thesis_title      = Conformally Invariant Quantum Fields
| thesis_year       = 1986
| thesis_url        = http://library.mit.edu/item/000305075
| known_for         = 
| author_abbrev_bot = 
| author_abbrev_zoo = 
| influences        = 
| influenced        = 
| awards            = [[Levi L. Conant Prize]] (2013)<ref name=conant>{{citation|url=https://www.ams.org/notices/201304/rnoti-p484.pdf|title=2013 Conant Prize|journal=[[Notices of the AMS]]|date=April 2013|volume=60|issue=4|pages=484–485}}</ref>
| signature         = <!--(filename only)-->
| footnotes         = 
| spouse            = [[Lisa Raphals]]
}}

'''John Carlos Baez''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|b|aɪ|.|ɛ|z}} {{respell|BY|ez}};<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEhAMnQb9p4 "John Baez Part 1"]<!--0:09--></ref> born June 12, 1961) is an American [[mathematical physics|mathematical physicist]] and a professor of [[mathematics]] at the [[University of California, Riverside]] (UCR)<ref>[https://archive.today/20120730014003/http://www.facultydirectory.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/pub/public_individual.pl?faculty=193 UC Riverside, Department of Mathematics]</ref> in [[Riverside, California|Riverside]], California. He has worked on [[spin foam]]s in [[loop quantum gravity]], applications of [[higher category theory|higher categories]] to physics, and [[applied category theory]]. Additionally, Baez is known on the [[World Wide Web]] as the author of the [[crackpot index]].

== Education ==
John C. Baez attended [[Princeton University]] where he graduated with an A.B. in mathematics in 1982; his senior thesis was titled "Recursivity in quantum mechanics", under the supervision of [[John P. Burgess]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Baez|first=John C.|url=https://catalog.princeton.edu/catalog/4057230|title=Recursivity in quantum mechanics|date=1982|publisher=Princeton University Department of Mathematics|location=Princeton, N.J.|language=en}}</ref>
He earned his doctorate in 1986 from the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] under the direction of [[Irving Segal]].<ref>{{MathGenealogy | id= 25152 }}</ref>

== Career ==
Baez was a [[post-doctoral researcher]] at [[Yale University]]. Since 1989, he has been a faculty member at [[UC Riverside]]. From 2010 to 2012, he was a visiting professor at the [[Centre for Quantum Technologies]] in Singapore and continued working there in the summers until at least 2016.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Baez |first=John |date=2016-03-15 |title=Interview with a Mathematical Physicist: John Baez Part 1 |url=https://www.physicsforums.com/insights/interview-mathematical-physicist-john-baez-part-1/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240221050400/https://www.physicsforums.com/insights/interview-mathematical-physicist-john-baez-part-1/ |archive-date=2024-02-21 |access-date=2025-01-26 |website=Physics Forums Insights |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=O'Neil |first=Kathryn M |date=2023-08-03 |title=Mathematician Aims to Keep It Simple |url=https://alum.mit.edu/slice/mathematician-aims-keep-it-simple |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007035950/https://alum.mit.edu/slice/mathematician-aims-keep-it-simple |archive-date=2024-10-07 |access-date=2025-01-26 |website=alum.mit.edu |language=en}}</ref>

=== Research ===
His research includes work on [[spin foam]]s in [[loop quantum gravity]].<ref>Baez, John C. (1998), "Spin foam models", ''Class. & Quantum Gravity'' 15, 1827–1858</ref><ref>[http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/topcites/2004/eprints/to_gr-qc_alltime.shtml Top Cited Articles of All Time (2004 edition) in gr-qc]</ref> He also worked on applications of [[higher category theory|higher categories]] to physics,<ref>[http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/diary/january_2010.html John Baez Diary – January 2010], 1 January 2010</ref><ref name="BL">John C. Baez and [[Aaron Lauda]], ''[[arxiv:0908.2469|A Prehistory of n-Categorical Physics]]'', Deep Beauty, 13–128, Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, (2011).</ref> such as the [[cobordism hypothesis]]. He has also dedicated many efforts towards [[applied category theory]], including network theory<ref>[http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/networks/ John Baez, Network theory.]</ref> and has published over 105 papers.<ref>{{Cite web |title=John Baez AMS {{!}} Department of Mathematics |url=https://mathdept.ucr.edu/john-baez-ams |access-date=2025-04-01 |website=mathdept.ucr.edu |language=en}}</ref>

=== Recognition ===
Baez won the 2013 [[Levi L. Conant Prize]] for his expository paper with John Huerta, "The algebra of grand unified theories".<ref name=conant/> He was named a Fellow of the [[American Mathematical Society]], in the 2022 class of fellows, "for contributions to higher category theory and mathematical physics, and for popularization of these subjects".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ams.org/cgi-bin/fellows/fellows_by_year.cgi|title=2022 Class of Fellows of the AMS|publisher=American Mathematical Society|access-date=2021-11-05}}</ref>

=== Forums<!--'N-Category Café' and 'N-Café' redirect here--> ===
Baez is the author of ''This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics'',<ref>[http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/TWF.html This Week's Finds]</ref> an irregular column on the internet featuring mathematical exposition and criticism. He started ''This Week's Finds'' in 1993 for the [[Usenet]] community, and it now has a following in its new form, the blog ''Azimuth''. ''This Week's Finds'' anticipated the concept of a personal [[blog|weblog]].<ref>Lieven LeBruyn, [http://www.neverendingbooks.org/the-unbearable-lightness-of-math-blogging The unbearable lightness of math-blogging], August 23, 2007</ref> Baez creates blog posts about topics or questions he wants to understand more through his column publishings.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Muehlhauser |first=Luke |date=2014-02-22 |title=John Baez on Research Tactics |url=https://intelligence.org/2014/02/21/john-baez-on-research-tactics/ |access-date=2025-02-10 |website=Machine Intelligence Research Institute |language=en-US}}</ref> ''Azimuth'' also covers other topics that include [[climate change mitigation|combating climate change]] and various other [[Environmental policy|environmental]] issues.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Azimuth Project|date=March 24, 2010 |url=https://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/about/}}</ref>

He is also co-founder of the '''{{anchor|n-category café}}''n''-Category Café'''<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA--> (or '''''n''-Café'''<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA-->), a [[group blog]] concerning [[higher category theory]] and its applications, as well as its philosophical repercussions. The founders of the blog are Baez, [[David Corfield]] and [[Urs Schreiber]], and the list of blog authors has extended since. The ''n''-Café community is associated with the [[nLab|''n''Lab]] wiki and ''n''Forum forum, which now run independently of ''n''-Café. It is hosted on [[University of Texas at Austin|The University of Texas at Austin]]'s official website.

== Family ==
Baez's uncle [[Albert Baez]] was a physicist and a co-inventor of the [[X-ray microscope]]; Albert interested him in physics as a child.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/interview1.html | title= Interview by David Morrison | access-date = May 24, 2009}}</ref> Through Albert, he is cousins with singers [[Joan Baez]] and [[Mimi Fariña]]. 

John Baez is married to [[Lisa Raphals]] who is a professor of Chinese and [[comparative literature]] from ancient Greece at [[University of California, Riverside|UCR]].<ref>[http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/diary/february_2007.html February 17, 2007 – Lisa Raphals and I got married today! (Diary – February 2007)]</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://complitforlang.ucr.edu/people/faculty/bio.html?page=raphals.html |title=Lisa Raphals (UCR faculty page) |access-date=May 3, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140503072425/http://complitforlang.ucr.edu/people/faculty/bio.html?page=raphals.html |archive-date=May 3, 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Raphals |first=Lisa |title=Knowing Words: Wisdom and Cunning in the Classical Traditions of China and Greece |date=1992 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-0-8014-2619-3 |series=Myth and Poetics Ser |location=Ithaca}}</ref>

== Selected publications ==

=== Papers ===
*{{Cite journal | last1 = Baez | first1 = John C. | last2 = Dolan | first2 = James | title = Higher-dimensional algebra and topological quantum field theory | journal = [[Journal of Mathematical Physics]] | issn = 0022-2488 | volume = 36 | issue = 11 | pages = 6073–6105 | year = 1995 | url = https://pubs.aip.org/aip/jmp/article-abstract/36/11/6073/394001/Higher-dimensional-algebra-and-topological-quantum?redirectedFrom=fulltext | publisher = [[American Institute of Physics]] | location = College Park, MD | doi = 10.1063/1.531236 | bibcode = 1995JMP....36.6073B | mr = 1355899 | s2cid = 14908618 | arxiv = q-alg/9503002 }}
*{{Cite journal | last1 = Baez | first1 = John C. | title = The Octonions | journal = [[Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society]] | issn = 0273-0979 | volume = 39 | issue = 2 | pages = 145–205 | year = 2002 | url = http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/octonions/ | publisher = [[American Mathematical Society ]] | location = Providence, RI | doi = 10.1090/S0273-0979-01-00934-X | doi-access = free | mr = 1886087| s2cid = 586512 }}
*{{Cite journal | last1 = Baez | first1 = John C. | last2 = Huerta | first2 = John | title = The algebra of grand unified theories | journal = Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. | volume = 47 | year = 2010 | issue = 3 | pages = 483–552 | publisher = American Mathematical Society | location = Providence, RI | doi = 10.1090/S0273-0979-10-01294-2 | arxiv = 0904.1556 | doi-access = free | bibcode = 2009arXiv0904.1556B | mr = 2651086 | s2cid =  2941843 | zbl = 1196.81252 }} 
*{{Cite journal | last1 = Baez | first1 = John C. | last2 = Hoffnung | first2 = Alexander E. | last3 = Rogers | first3 = Christopher L. | title = Categorified Symplectic Geometry and the Classical String  | journal = [[Communications in Mathematical Physics]] | volume = 293 | pages = 701–725 | year = 2010 | issue = 3 | url = | publisher = [[Springer Science+Business Media|Springer]]| issn = 1432-0916 | location = Berlin | doi = 10.1007/s00220-009-0951-9 | doi-access = free | mr = 2566161 | s2cid = 14358807 | zbl = 1192.81208 | arxiv = 0808.0246 | bibcode = 2010CMaPh.293..701B }}
*{{Cite journal | last1 = Baez | first1 = John C. | last2 = Huerta | first2 = John | title = G<sub>2</sub> and the rolling ball | journal = [[Transactions of the American Mathematical Society]] | issn = 1088-6850 | volume = 366 | issue = 10 | pages = 5257–5293 | year = 2014 | url = https://www.ams.org/journals/tran/2014-366-10/S0002-9947-2014-05977-1/ | publisher = American Mathematical Society |location = Providence, RI | doi=10.1090/s0002-9947-2014-05977-1 | doi-access = free | mr = 3240924 | s2cid = 50818244 }}
*{{Cite journal | last = Baez | first = John C. | title = From the Icosahedron to E<sub>8</sub> | journal = London Math. Soc. Newsletter | issn = 2516-3841 | volume = 476 | pages = 18–23 | year = 2018 | location = London, UK | bibcode = 2017arXiv171206436B | arxiv = 1712.06436 | mr = 3792329 | s2cid = 119151549 | zbl = 1476.51020 }}

=== Books ===

* {{Cite book | last1 = Baez | first1 = John C. | last2 = Segal | first2 = Irving E. | last3 = Zhou | first3 = Zhengfang | title = An Introduction to Algebraic and Constructive Quantum Field Theory | url = https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691634104/introduction-to-algebraic-and-constructive-quantum-field-theory | publisher = [[Princeton University Press]] | series = Princeton Series in Physics | location = Princeton, NJ | issn = 1052-8083 | volume = 47 | year = 1992 | isbn = 978-1-4008-6250-4 | oclc = 889252663 | mr = 1178936}}
* {{Cite book | editor-last = Baez | editor-first = John C. | title= Knots and Quantum Gravity | url = https://global.oup.com/academic/product/knots-and-quantum-gravity-9780198534907?lang=de&cc=cn | series = Oxford Lecture Series in Mathematics and its Applications | issn = 2059-9854 | volume = 1 | publisher = [[Oxford University Press]] | location = Oxford | year = 1994 | isbn = 978-0198534907 | oclc = 30509964 }}
* {{Cite book | last1 = Baez | first1 = John C. | last2 =  Muniain | first2 = Javier P. | title = Gauge fields, knots and gravity | url = https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/2324#t=aboutBook | publisher = [[World Scientific|World Scientific Publishing Co., Inc.]] | series = Series on Knots and Everything | volume = 4 | issn = 0219-9769 | location = River Edge, NJ | year = 1994 | doi = 10.1142/2324 | isbn = 978-9810220341 | oclc = 30779834 | mr = 1313910 }} 
* {{Cite book | editor-last1 = Baez| editor-first1 = John C. | editor-last2 = May | editor-first2 = J. Peter | title = Towards Higher Categories | url = https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4419-1524-5 | series = The IMA Volumes in Mathematics and its Applications | issn = 0940-6573 | volume = 157 | publisher = [[Springer Science+Business Media|Springer-Verlag]] | location = New York, NY | year = 2009 | doi = 10.1007/978-1-4419-1524-5 | isbn = 978-1441915238 | oclc = 778311627 | mr = 2664168 }}
* {{Cite book | last1 = Baez |first1 = John C. | last2 = Baratin | first2 = Aristide  | last3 = Laurent |first3 = Freidel | last4 = Derek | first4 = Wise | title = Infinite-Dimensional Representations of 2-Groups | url = https://www.ams.org/books/memo/1032/ | series = [[Memoirs of the American Mathematical Society]] | volume = 1032 | publisher = American Mathematical Society | location = Providence, RI | year = 2012 | isbn = 978-0-8218-7284-0 | oclc = 5581307110 | issn = 0065-9266 }}
* {{Cite book | last1 = Baez | first1 = John C | last2 = Biamonte | first2 = Jacob D. | title = Quantum Techniques for Stochastic Mechanics | url = https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/10623#t=aboutBook | publisher = [[World Scientific|World Scientific Press]] | location = Singapore | year = 2018 | doi = 10.1142/10623 | arxiv = 1209.3632 | isbn = 978-9813226937 | s2cid = 119650940 | oclc = 1027138118 }}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
{{Wikiquote}}
{{Commonscat|John C. Baez}}
*[http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/ Baez's home page] at UCR's official website (ucr.edu)
*[http://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/ Azimuth] blog by Baez
*[http://golem.ph.utexas.edu/category/ The ''n''-Category Café] 
*[http://ncatlab.org/nlab/show/John+Baez Home page] in ''n''Lab

=== Essays ===
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20150302015053/http://edge.org/q2008/q08_5.html#baez "Should I be thinking about quantum gravity?"], essay by Baez at The World Question Center

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baez, John C.}}
[[Category:1961 births]]
[[Category:20th-century American mathematicians]]
[[Category:21st-century American mathematicians]]
[[Category:21st-century American physicists]]
[[Category:American bloggers]]
[[Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni]]
[[Category:Princeton University alumni]]
[[Category:Yale University fellows]]
[[Category:Usenet people]]
[[Category:Category theorists]]
[[Category:University of California, Riverside faculty]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Loop quantum gravity researchers]]
[[Category:American relativity theorists]]
[[Category:Higher category theory]]
[[Category:American academics of Mexican descent]]
[[Category:Science bloggers]]
[[Category:21st-century science writers]]
[[Category:Mathematicians from California]]
[[Category:Academics from San Francisco]]
[[Category:Hispanic and Latino American scientists]]
[[Category:Fellows of the American Mathematical Society]]
[[Category:Hispanic and Latino American physicists]]
[[Category:Historical treatment of octonions]]