About me
Most of my research is on the foundations and philosophy of physics, particularly the foundations of quantum mechanics, and how the mathematical formalism of quantum mechanics informs us of problems outside of physics. Most recently, I've been focusing on the issue of indistinguishability in physics and how it relates to principles defining quantum mechanics. I am also interested in physics and math education research and teacher preparation. A brief summary of my research can be found in the research section of this site. The section Publications has some of my papers in pdf, as well as my Ph.D. dissertation and M.Sc. thesis.
I also enjoy teaching science at the undergraduate and graduate levels. In the teaching section of this site, you will find descriptions of some of the courses I taught, with links that I found useful, as well as courses that I am interested in teaching in the future.
You can contact me via email at barros at sfsu dot edu. My CV, in pdf format, is available here.
Academic Lineage
Contrary to ordinary genealogy, which grows exponentially when you move back in time, one’s academic genealogy only includes their Ph.D. advisor, the advisor’s advisor, and so on. So, I’ll start with my main advisor, Francisco Antonio Doria. Doria got his Ph.D. from CBPF in 1977, and his advisor was Leopoldo Nachbin. Nachbin got his Ph.D. from University of Chicago under Laurent Schwartz. Schwartz got his Ph.D. from Université Louis Pasteur - Strasbourg I, advised by Georges Valiron, who got his Ph.D. from the Université de Paris in 1914. Valiron was Émile Borel’s Ph.D. student at the École Normale Supérieure Paris, getting his degree in 1893. Borél’s advisor was Gaston Darboux, Ph.D. from École Normale Supérieure, Paris, 1866. Darboux advisor was Michel Chasles, Ph.D. from École Polytechnique, 1814. Chasles was a student of none less than Simeon Denis Poisson. Poisson got his Ph.D. from the École Polytechnique in 1800, where he had two advisors: Joseph Louis Lagrange and Pierre-Simon Laplace. Lagrange did not have a doctoral advisor (he got a BA from Università di Torino in 1754), but Leonard Euler is considered equivalent to his Ph.D. advisor and mentor. Laplace had as advisor Jean Le Rond d'Alembert. So, on Doria’s side, my lineage goes back to Euler and D’Alambert. I could also list Newton da Costa as my third co-adviser, albeit in a more informal role, but I will refrain from doing so. Instead, my mentor in many aspects was Patrick Suppes, who got his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Columbia University in 1950. Suppes was a student of Ernest Nagel, who also got his degree from Columbia under Morris Raphael Cohen. Cohen was a student of William James (Pat was happy to find that James was in his lineage) and Hugo Münsterberg. In their intellectual past are Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz and Nicolaus Copernicus.
As a curiosity, my Erdös number is 4. I published with Pat Suppes, who published with Dana Scott. Dana Scott published with Alfred Tarski, who finally published with Paul Erdös.
