John Holmes is a researcher and teacher at The Ohio State University (OSU). He grew up in Buffalo, NY before graduating from Wabash College with distinction. While attending Wabash, he won several awards including the Carscallen prize in mathematics, the Rogge award in economics, and the Andree award from the Pi Mu Epsilon national mathematics honor society. A year later, he earned a MS in applied mathematics with applications to financial economics from the University of Notre Dame under the supervision of Thomas Cosimano (finance) and Alex Himonas (mathematics). He stayed at Notre Dame and completed a Ph.D. in mathematics under the supervision of Alex Himonas, and earned a second MS in mathematics along the way. 

After earning his Ph.D., he worked with Barbara Keyfitz and Feride Tiglay at OSU for three years as a Ross assistant professor (a postdoc position). During his third year, he was offered a tenure-track position at Wake Forest University (WFU), but delayed the start date of his hiring for one year. During this year, he remained at OSU as the Charles Saltzer Postdoctoral Researcher. He spent three years at WFU where he introduced several topics courses in quantitative finance, founded the Mathematical Finance and PDE Seminar, and advised several thesis students on topics in mathematical finance. In the fall of 2022, he returned to OSU as a tenure-track assistant professor. He was promoted to associate professor (with tenure) in May 2025.