Citizenship United States Name John Cramer Nationality American Children Kathryn Cramer | Alma mater Rice University Education Rice University Doctoral advisor Calvin M. Class | |
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Born John Gleason Cramer, Jr.
24 October 1934 (age 89)
Houston, Texas, United States ( 1934-10-24 ) Residence Seattle, Washington and Westport, New York, United States Institutions University of Washington Fields Nuclear physics, Quantum mechanics, Novelist Nominations Locus Award for Best First Novel, Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel Books Einstein's Bridge, Twistor, How Alien Would Aliens Be, A Brief History of Physical, The Siege of Haven | ||
John g cramer at norwescon 33
John Gleason Cramer, Jr. (born October 24, 1934) is a Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington. He has been an active participant with the STAR (Solenoidal Tracker At RHIC) Experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory, and the particle accelerator at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland.
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John g cramer at norwescon 33
Early years
John Cramer was born in Houston, Texas. He attended Mirabeau B Lamar High School in Houston, and graduated with a BA in Physics from Rice University in 1957. He continued his studies, graduating with a MA in Physics from Rice University in 1959 and a Ph.D. in Physics from Rice University in 1961.
Career
Cramer served as a post doctoral fellow at Indiana University from 1961–63, and worked as an assistant professor at the same university from 1963-64. He served an assistant professor at University of Washington from 1964–68, as an associate professor from 1968–74 and was appointed as a full professor in 1974.
From 2007 to 2014, Cramer investigated the possibility that quantum nonlocality might be used for communication between observers through the use of switchable interference patterns. In the course of this work, he gained new understanding of the "show stopper" within the quantum formalism that prevents such nonlocal signaling. For each interference pattern, Nature also provides and superimposes an "anti-interference pattern". These are always combined in a way that "erases" potential nonlocal signals. The two interference patterns complement each other, resulting in no perceptible interference pattern. Measurement changes can dramatically modify the individual interference patterns, but always so that this erasure occurs. In this way, Nature is protected from the possibility of retrocausal signaling and its consequences and paradoxes.
Cramer makes regular appearances on the Science Channel and on NPR Science Friday.
Writing
In addition to his approximately 300 scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals, John Cramer writes a regular column, "The Alternate View", appearing in every second issue, for Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine. He also originated and published a paper on "The Transactional Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics" (TIQM) in July 1986, which was inspired from the Wheeler-Feynman Time-symmetric theory.
His book on quantum mechanics, The Quantum Handshake: Entanglement, Nonlocality and Transactions (2015), published by Springer Verlag, is a comprehensive introduction to the transactional interpretation.
Cramer's simulation of the sound of the Big Bang, created using Mathematica, attracted some mainstream press attention in late 2003 and again in 2013. The simulation originated with an "Alternate View" article, "BOOMERanG and the Sound of the Big Bang" (January 2001). Cramer describes the sound as "rather like a large jet plane 100 feet off the ground flying over your house in the middle of the night."
Cramer has published two novels, Twistor (1989) and Einstein's Bridge (1997), both within the hard science fiction genre. Cramer was the 2010 Science Guest of Honor at Norwescon, a large science fiction and fantasy convention in the Seattle area.
Awards and recognition
Personal life
Cramer married Pauline Ruth Bond in June, 1961. The couple have three children: Kathryn Cramer (born April, 1962), John G. Cramer III (born January 1964), and Karen Cramer (born April 1967).