John Robert Steel (born October 30, 1948) is an American set theorist at University of California, Berkeley (formerly at UCLA). He has made many contributions to the theory of inner models and determinacy. With Donald A. Martin, he proved projective determinacy,[1] assuming the existence of sufficient large cardinals. He earned his Ph.D. in Logic & the Methodology of Science at Berkeley in 1977 under the joint supervision of John West Addison Jr. and Stephen G. Simpson.[2]