# Paul Ginsparg ![[50 Resources/51 Attachments/51.03 Public/2026-05-04 Paul Ginsparg.jpg|400]] Paul Ginsparg is an American theoretical physicist best known for creating [[arXiv]], the free open-access preprint repository that has reshaped how research is shared in physics, math, computer science, and many other fields. Born in Chicago in 1955, he earned his PhD in theoretical particle physics from Cornell University in 1981. He held positions at Harvard University before moving to Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he launched arXiv in August 1991 as a simple email + FTP server for physics preprints. In 2001, he joined Cornell University, where he continues as Professor of Physics and Computing & Information Science. His research spans quantum field theory, string theory, conformal field theory, and quantum gravity, alongside ongoing work on scholarly communication in the digital age — including machine learning approaches to classify, cluster, and recommend papers on arXiv. ## Notable Awards - MacArthur Fellowship (2002) - Radcliffe Institute Fellow (2008–2009) - White House Champion of Change (2013) - Einstein Foundation Award (2021) - Fellow of the American Physical Society ## Why He Matters - Built the canonical example of open-access scholarly infrastructure — single-handedly at first, then as a sustained institution - Demonstrated that researchers will route around traditional publishers when given a better channel - arXiv now hosts 2.4M+ papers; in many fields, it is where research actually lives ## Quotes <!-- QueryToSerialize: LIST FROM #type/quote AND [[Paul Ginsparg]] WHERE public_note = true SORT file.name ASC --> ## Books <!-- QueryToSerialize: LIST FROM #type/book AND [[Paul Ginsparg]] WHERE public_note = true SORT file.name ASC --> ## Related - [[arXiv]] ## References - Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Ginsparg - Cornell profile: https://physics.cornell.edu/paul-ginsparg - arXiv announcement (1991): https://arxiv.org/abs/cs/0102014 - MacArthur Foundation profile: https://www.macfound.org/fellows/class-of-2002/paul-ginsparg