Matt Baker (B.S. ’94, mathematics) ‘blazes his own trail’ in mathematics and magic.

For Matt Baker (B.S. ’94, mathematics), there’s something irresistibly inspiring about watching a great magic trick—or better yet, performing one.

“For someone like me, who is very rational and analytical, I love the feeling of having no idea what just happened and then being immersed in a fiction where there’s some reality that violates the rules of logic and physics. It’s very interesting to not know how that’s possible,” Baker explained. “It’s a really unique, great feeling, and I like creating that fiction, that world, for other people.”

Magic is just one of Baker’s passions. The other is mathematics. An internationally recognized mathematics professor and former associate dean at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Baker is also a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society and the author of several books and more than 50 published mathematics research papers. And while he built a stellar career as a mathematician, Baker was also making a name for himself as a ‘thinking man’s’ magician, creating and performing original tricks (card tricks are among his favorites) that have won him acclaim around the world, even appearing with Vegas illusionists Penn and Teller on their TV magic show. 

“I was on Penn and Teller: Fool Us, which was really fun,” Baker noted. “I've got a clip on my website of me performing on TV—I did an original trick I'm really proud of that actually involves some interesting mathematics as well.”

Over the years, Baker has found a unique synergy between magic and mathematics.

“I think they complement each other even better than I ever anticipated. I tried to keep them separate for a long time, like this was the secret hobby that I didn't really tell my colleagues about, but in fact, that was misguided, because they work really well together,” Baker reflected. “I think being a magic performer makes me a better math teacher, and being comfortable in front of students makes me a more natural performer.  Many magic tricks use math principles, where the knowledge of the math is directly helpful, and there are also magic tricks that are fun to do in the classroom that help bring across math concepts, so I often do magic tricks for my students.”

Magic or math?

So, which came first, the magic or the math? Baker says he was hooked from the moment he saw his first magic show.

“When I was 4 years old, we had a magician at my birthday party. I have a picture of me watching that show, and you can see from my face that I was totally fascinated,” he explained. “At some point after that, I started playing around with magic. I didn't have a teacher or any professional help, so I'm sure I was very bad, but I was very enthusiastic about it.”

By age 10, Baker was performing magic at other kids’ birthday parties. Then, he discovered math.

“My earliest memory of really being into math was in the third grade. We had a math bee, like a spelling bee, but in math class, and I won,” Baker recalled. “That’s the first time I remember thinking, maybe I'm good at math.” 

Baker tackled advanced math in middle school and high school, eventually deciding to major in mathematics at the University of Maryland. Before he even started his freshman year, he aced his first college exam, and he was off and running.

“I read a book in high school about number theory that really captivated me, and at Maryland, before I actually started as a freshman, I took the final exam for the number theory class—which was an upper-level undergraduate course—and got 100% on it, so I kept going in that direction,” Baker recalled. “I had some really memorable classes through the Honors Program at Maryland, and I took graduate-level algebra and analysis classes that ended up being very helpful for my subsequent career in number theory.”

With every challenge, Baker’s passion for mathematics grew. After graduating from UMD in 1994, Baker earned his Ph.D. in mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley in 1999 before beginning his career in academia as an assistant professor at Harvard University. 

“I always knew I liked teaching, and that was pretty much a constant. I had positive experiences teaching from the start,” Baker explained. “Getting into research was a rockier road, but I kept at it.”

As Baker moved on to teach at the University of Georgia and then Georgia Tech in 2004, his research career took off, exploring connections between number theory, algebraic geometry, complex dynamics and combinatorics.

“What's fun about academia is you get to make up your own research program and do what you want to do, but it took me a while to figure out what that was,” Baker explained. “One thing that's unusual about my career is I've moved between different areas quite a bit, so now, I wouldn't really call myself a number theorist anymore; I’ve basically moved into a blend of algebraic geometry and combinatorics. All those areas have overlaps, and that's what I specialize in, but really, what I've managed to do is create my own bridges between these areas that didn't exist before. So, in a sense, I'm doing Baker Theory.”

Making it magic

A few years after Baker joined Georgia Tech, a mathematics workshop in Paris rekindled his passion for magic.  

“There was a mathematician there, he knew about a club in Paris where the waiters are all magicians, and they do magic as they're serving your food, and he asked me if I wanted to go. That experience immediately filled me with a desire to try to get back into magic again,” Baker recalled. “I discovered the world of magic DVDs, where you can learn on video from a master, and then I got some really good books as well. I decided I was going to give up all my other hobbies—I only had time for one hobby, and I was going to make it magic.”

Baker connected with the Georgia Magic Club, and soon he was brainstorming with professional magicians and developing his own unique tricks, something he’d never been able to do as a kid.

“I started creating my own material, and that satisfied the same kind of urge that my math research does, where I'm kind of blazing my own trail and doing things that are really original and creative,” Baker explained. “Ultimately, that's the most satisfying thing for me.”

A two-time Greater Atlanta Magician of the Year, Baker is working on his second book of original magic tricks, performing regularly and exploring ways to bring his unique mathemagical style to education.

 “A couple of years ago, I went to India with a professional magician who's a good friend, and we wrote a curriculum to teach kids from underserved areas math concepts using magic tricks; it's led me to quite interesting things,” he said. “I’m hoping we can improve the world of magic by bringing more interesting math principles to people's attention and focusing on new opportunities for teaching mathematics using magic.”

In March, Baker will bring his mathematical expertise and his magic skills to UMD’s Brin Mathematics Research Center for a Math & Magic workshop and public magic show. For Baker, it’s a welcome opportunity to return to the place that helped set the stage for his success. 

“I’m thankful for all the opportunities I had to get where I am, and Maryland was definitely a key part of that,” Baker said. “I haven't been back in a long time, so I think it’ll be really fun.”

By Leslie Miller