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# Introduction: Blaine Mooers

I am an associate professor in biochemistry at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. I do protein and RNA crystallography. I took two years of physical chemistry and 4 quarters of mathematical physics, but I never took a course in abstract algebra nor analysis, so I bring a blank slate to category theory. I have published a three applied papers related to the crystallographic phase problem in crystallography: the application of direct methods to the structure determination of larger nucleic acids and proteins. I have intermediate R and Python programming skills and an interest in applying Bayesian statistics to my work. I am also interested in experimental designs including optimal experiments and response surface methodology. I was introduced to category theory last fall semester by a senior colleague in my department who works in proteomics. I may prove to be the slowest student to my other professional obligations, but I cannot wait for retirement to learn about category theory.

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Hello, Blaine! I'm glad you're not waiting for retirement. I believe that category theory "rewired my brain", changing how I think about everything, and I find that the more math people learn without getting into category theory, the harder they find it to learn. Young students seem to take to it quite naturally.

What sort of problems in crystallography are you working on now? I had a minor flirtation with crystallography, but it was of a very mathematical and useless sort:

Comment Source:Hello, Blaine! I'm glad you're not waiting for retirement. I believe that category theory "rewired my brain", changing how I think about everything, and I find that the more math people learn _without_ getting into category theory, the harder they find it to learn. Young students seem to take to it quite naturally. What sort of problems in crystallography are you working on now? I had a minor flirtation with crystallography, but it was of a very mathematical and useless sort: * [Diamonds and triamonds](https://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2016/04/11/diamonds-and-triamonds/).