JOHN CRAMER is a Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of Washington in Seattle. Although he formally retired from his UW teaching position on January 1, 2010, he teaches an introductory physics course one quarter of each year, and he continues physics research in ultra-relativistic heavy ion physics, participating in the STAR experiment at the RHIC facility of Brookhaven National Laboratory (Long Island, NY). He is also actively pursuing a UW-based experiment in quantum optics that tests for the possibility that quantum nonlocality can be used for communication. He has received considerable media attention for the “time travel” aspects of this work. This experiment, if successful, would imply that entanglement can be used to send a superluminal or “instantaneous” signal between two distant locations (or perhaps backwards in time to the apparatus to itself).
John is an experimental physicist. He has published over 200 physics research papers in peer-reviewed physics journals. As an experimental physicist, John approaches theoretical physics from an experimentalist viewpoint, writing physics papers on Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, Bose-Einstein Interferometry, etc. He is known as the originator of the Transactional Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, which he considers to be a superior alternative to the orthodox Copenhagen Interpretation and the so-called Many-Worlds interpretation. See http://faculty.washington.edu/jcramer/TI/tiqm_1986.pdf .
John has written “hard” science fiction and is the author of two published novels: Twistor, [William Morrow, Mar ’89; AvoNova, Nov ’91; Jun ’97] and Einstein’s Bridge [Avon Jun 97; Avon Eos May 98] John is also a science writer, and writes a bimonthly science-fact column “The Alternate View”, for Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine. John has written over 160 columns, all of which are available on the web at http://www.npl.washington.edu/av .
John was born and grew up in Houston, Texas. He majored in physics at Rice University in Houston (Ph D.1961). John and his wife Pauline have three children and six grandchildren. Their daughter Kathryn Cramer is a well-known writer, critic, and SF and Fantasy editor and anthologist. John and Pauline have two Shetland Sheepdogs. John and his dogs compete in many AKC agility trials, and three of his dogs have achieved one or more AKC Master Agility Championship (MACH) titles.