April 12, 1973 – November 18, 2013
Jonathan Baker, 40, of San Francisco, died unexpectedly November 18, 2013.
He was born on April 12, 1973, in Brevard, North Carolina. He is survived by his beloved parents, Sally Kemp and Eugene R. Baker; his sister, Meg Baker Buchanan and husband Travis; niece Gracie Carrick and nephews Baker and Grant Buchanan, all of Brevard.
Jonathan graduated from North Carolina School of Science and Math as a national merit finalist and earning the Ecusta National Merit scholarship. He earned a Bachelor of Science in physics (with honor) from the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, in 1990 where he received a Caltech Merit Prize (full tuition), a Robert A. Milliken Scholarship, and a Barry Goldwater Scholarship for Science and Engineering. In 1994 Jonathan entered UC Berkeley, where he received his Master of Arts in astronomy and was a Ph.D. candidate, astrophysics.
He was employed by Alexa Internet where as minister of data he was responsible for some of Alexa's most complex and important data analysis of global web traffic.
Jonathan's love of nature and adventure led him to travel throughout the world. On his first trip to China in 2001, he served as a diplomatic courier. He also traveled to Japan, Thailand, Tibet, Peru, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Chili, and much of Europe. In 2004 he biked from Lhasa to Kathmandu in the Himalayas.
Last summer he participated in the AIDS/Life Cycle, a seven-day bike ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles, which covered 545 miles, as part of Team Unpopular.