Article from UMD Physics Newsletter, Spring, 2003

In 2003, the Physics Department at the University of Minnesota-Duluth asked Jim to describe his journey thus far for their “Catching Up With Grads” column. Here is what Jim wrote.

James Baker-Jarvis, MS '80
I graduated from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities in 1975 with a BS in Mathematics. Then with Karen, my future wife, I climbed mountains and bicycled all over North and South America for a few years. We had many “near-death” climbing experiences.

The main goal in my life has been to pursue my passions. One way to do this was to have two retirements, one when young and one when older.

About this time, I thought I better get going to obtain the degrees I need to pursue my passion for natural philosophy (physics). So we moved to Duluth, and I worked on my master’s degree at UMD. I had a great time on my thesis research with Professor Jordan, on theories of wind-driven currents.

My wife and I then moved to Bellingham, Washington where she got a degree in carpentry in a Vo-Tech. In Bellingham we had a great time for a year, except that the unemployment rate was 25% and I had a hard time finding a good job. To support us, I mowed lawns and worked picking mushrooms at Mt. Baker Mushroom Farm. In the evenings there I continued with theoretical work and published a couple papers.

Next, I applied to the University of Wyoming Physics Department, because we liked Wyoming, and obtained a Ph.D. in theoretical physics in 1984. After graduation I worked as an AWU postdoctoral fellow for one year on theoretical and experimental aspects of intense electromagnetic fields in lossy materials and dielectric measurements.

Following that, I spent two years as Assistant Professor in the Physics Department at the University of Wyoming, working on electromagnetic heating processes, investigating information theory, and teaching classes.

Then through 1988, I was Assistant Professor of Physics at North Dakota State University. There I taught courses in the areas of electronic properties of materials and performed research on an innovative approach to the solution of differential equations using a maximum-entropy technique.

In January 1989, I joined the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Boulder, Colorado, where I have worked in the areas of microscopic relaxation, electronic materials, dielectric and magnetic spectroscopy, and nondestructive evaluation. I am currently Project Leader of the Electromagnetic Properties of Materials Project.

I have two categories of research, one I do at NIST and the other on evenings and weekends. In the second category, just recently, I worked out and published a general theory of Maxwell’s equations using a projection-operator, quantum-statistical mechanical method. I am currently developing my approach to quantum mechanics.

I have been married to Karen for 25 years, and we have two children. We spend our time in the summers canoeing in northern Canada and teaching whitewater canoeing. We have competed in two whitewater slalom championships, one in Colorado and one in Duluth, and plan to go to Wausau, Wisconsin this summer for another one. I feel I have had a balanced and wonderful life, and I have very fond memories of UMD and the cross-country skiing around the city.