[2] He is the author of several books and articles on fringe science, arguing in favor of the existence of the Loch Ness Monster and against Immanuel Velikovsky, and is an AIDS denialist.
[2] Bauer also served as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Virginia Tech, generating controversy by criticising affirmative action.
After retiring from Virginia Tech, Bauer became the editor of the Journal of Scientific Exploration, a publication devoted to fringe and non-mainstream science.
[10] In a news interview, Bauer commented on his belief in the Loch Ness Monster and how it has influenced his career: "I've been quite open about it....if I had been a biologist instead of a chemist, I couldn't have gotten away with it.
[18][20] He criticized Virginia Tech's creation of a new administrative position for multicultural affairs in response to racial incidents at the university in the mid-1990s as a wasteful allocation of resources.
Bauer found fault with Virginia Tech's policy of excusing student absences for attending religious or ethnic observances.
As black enrollment at Virginia Tech declined during the 1990s, Bauer stated that the university was already doing too much ("pulling out all the stops") to attract minority students,[21] and should instead concentrate on raising academic standards.
[23] Bauer has since stated he no longer holds this view, saying he had been "wrong" about the issue and had, in particular, mistakenly relied on the "naturalistic" fallacy that reduced culture and ethics to biology.
[24] AIDSTruth.org, an AIDS information resource, notes Bauer posted the statement one day after an account of his views appeared on their website.
[22] Several years after retiring from Virginia Tech, Bauer began to assert that there are "substantive grounds for doubting that HIV is the necessary and sufficient cause of AIDS and that antiretroviral treatment is unambiguously beneficial.