Jeffrey Bub

{{Cleanup biography|date=July 2021}}

{{short description|Physicist and philosopher of science}}

Jeffrey Bub (born 1942) is a physicist and philosopher of physics, and Distinguished Professor{{cite web|url=http://www.philosophy.umd.edu/people/bub|title=Jeffrey Bub. Distinguished University Professor|publisher=University of Maryland, Department of Philosophy|accessdate=23 November 2014|archive-date=19 February 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190219170624/http://www.philosophy.umd.edu/people/bub|url-status=dead}} in the department of philosophy, the Joint Center for Quantum Information and Computer Science, and the Institute for Physical Science and Technology at the University of Maryland, College Park.[http://carnap.umd.edu/philphysics/bub.html Jeffrey Bub], Faculty page, University of Maryland, College Park (downloaded February 23, 2012)

He obtained his bachelor's degree in pure mathematics and physics from the University of Cape Town. A scholarship allowed him to work at Birkbeck College with David Bohm who had profound intellectual influence on his work.{{cite journal | url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0269859022000013346 | doi=10.1080/0269859022000013346 | title=Bub and the barriers to quantum ontology | year=2002 | last1=Peacock | first1=Kent A. | journal=International Studies in the Philosophy of Science | volume=16 | issue=3 | pages=285–289 | s2cid=121610308 | url-access=subscription }} Bub obtained his PhD in Mathematical Physics from London University in 1966. Before taking up his position as professor at the University of Maryland in 1986, he worked at the University of Minnesota, Yale University, Tel Aviv University, and the University of Western Ontario. He has been visiting professor at Princeton University, Yale University, the University of California at Irvine, the CPNSS at the London School of Economics, the University of California at San Diego, the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, and the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information at the University of Vienna.[http://symposia.templeton.org/deep_beauty/bios.html#bub CV] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160323005407/http://symposia.templeton.org/deep_beauty/bios.html#bub |date=2016-03-23 }} at John Templeton Foundation (downloaded February 23, 2012)

His main research interests relate to quantum foundations, quantum information, quantum computation, and quantum cryptography. In 1998, his book Interpreting the Quantum World won the Lakatos Award.[http://users.ox.ac.uk/~everett/biographies.htm#Jeffrey_Bub Short CV, Cambridge University] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161108060621/http://users.ox.ac.uk/~everett/biographies.htm#Jeffrey_Bub |date=2016-11-08 }} (downloaded February 23, 2012) In 2005 he received the University of Maryland's Kirwan Faculty Research and Scholarship Prize for his work in the area of quantum foundations and quantum information.

Bub has published over 100 scientific articles; the first of these are three articles authored together with David Bohm and published in 1966 and 1968. In 2010, he published an argument that the famous work of John Stewart Bell (and, thus, Grete Hermann) had misconstrued John von Neumann's no hidden variables proof of the impossibility of hidden variables in quantum mechanics.{{cite journal |title=Von Neumann's 'No Hidden Variables' Proof: A Re-Appraisal|year=2010 |last1=Bub |first1=Jeffrey |journal=Foundations of Physics |volume=40|issue=9–10|pages=1333–1340 |doi=10.1007/s10701-010-9480-9|arxiv=1006.0499|bibcode=2010FoPh...40.1333B|s2cid=118595119 }} The validity of Bub's argument is, in turn, disputed.{{cite journal|title=Homer nodded: von Neumann's surprising oversight |journal=Foundations of Physics |volume=48 |issue=9 |pages=1007–1020 |year=2018 |arxiv=1805.10311 |last1=Mermin |first1=N. David |last2=Schack |first2=Rüdiger |author-link1=N. David Mermin|doi=10.1007/s10701-018-0197-5 |bibcode=2018FoPh...48.1007M |s2cid=118951033 }}