David Gross

David Gross
Gross in October 2007
Born	David Jonathan Gross (1941-02-19) February 19, 1941 Washington, D.C., U.S.
Residence	United States
Nationality	American
Education	Hebrew University of Jerusalem (BSc, MSc) University of California, Berkeley (PhD)
Known for	Asymptotic freedom Heterotic string Gross–Neveu model
Spouse(s)	Shulamith Toaff Gross (divorced; 2 children) Jacquelyn Savani
Awards	Dirac Medal (1988) Harvey Prize (2000) Nobel Prize in Physics (2004)
Scientific career
Fields	Quantum field theory, string theory
Institutions	University of California, Santa Barbara Harvard University Princeton University
Doctoral advisor	Geoffrey Chew
Doctoral students	Frank Wilczek Edward Witten William E. Caswell Nikola Miljkovic Rajesh Gopakumar Nikita Nekrasov[1]
Signature

David Jonathan Gross (/ɡroʊs/; born February 19, 1941) is an American theoretical physicist and string theorist. Along with Frank Wilczek and David Politzer, he was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery of asymptotic freedom. David Gross is the Chancellor’s Chair Professor of Theoretical Physics at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics of the University of California, Santa Barbara, and was formerly the KITP director and holder of their Frederick W. Gluck Chair in Theoretical Physics . He is also a faculty member in the UC Santa Barbara Physics Department and is currently affiliated with the Institute for Quantum Studies at Chapman University in California. He is a foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.^[2]

Biography

Gross was born to a Jewish family in Washington, D.C., in February 1941. His parents were Nora (Faine) and Bertram Myron Gross (1912–1997). Gross received his bachelor's degree and master's degree from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, in 1962. He received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1966, under the supervision of Geoffrey Chew.^[3]

He was a Junior Fellow at Harvard University, and a Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics at Princeton University until 1997, when he began serving as Princeton's Thomas Jones Professor of Mathematical Physics Emeritus. He has received many honors, including a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 1987, the Dirac Medal in 1988 and the Harvey Prize in 2000.^[3]

He has been a central figure in particle physics and string theory. In 1973, Professor Gross, working with his first graduate student, Frank Wilczek, at Princeton University, discovered asymptotic freedom—the primary feature of non-Abelian gauge theories—led Gross and Wilczek to the formulation of quantum chromodynamics, the theory of the strong nuclear force. Asymptotic freedom is a phenomenon where the nuclear force weakens at short distances, which explains why experiments at very high energy can be understood as if nuclear particles are made of non-interacting quarks. The flip side of asymptotic freedom is that the force between quarks grows stronger as one tries to separate them. Therefore, the closer quarks are to each other, the less the strong interaction (or color charge) is between them; when quarks are in extreme proximity, the nuclear force between them is so weak that they behave almost as free particles. This is the reason why the nucleus of an atom can never be broken into its quark constituents.

QCD completed the Standard Model, which details the three basic forces of particle physics—the electromagnetic force, the weak force, and the strong force. Gross was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics, with Politzer and Wilczek, for this discovery. He has also made seminal contributions to the theory of Superstrings, a burgeoning enterprise that brings gravity into the quantum framework. With collaborators he originated the "Heterotic String Theory," the prime candidate for a unified theory of all the forces of nature. He continues to do research in this field at the KITP, a world center of physics.

Gross, with Jeffrey A. Harvey, Emil Martinec, and Ryan Rohm also formulated the theory of the heterotic string. The four were whimsically nicknamed the "Princeton String Quartet."^[4]

In 2003, Gross was one of 22 Nobel Laureates who signed the Humanist Manifesto.^[5][6][7] Gross is an atheist.^[6][7]

In 2015, Gross signed the Mainau Declaration 2015 on Climate Change on the final day of the 65th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting. The declaration was signed by a total of 76 Nobel Laureates and handed to then-President of the French Republic, François Hollande, as part of the successful COP21 climate summit in Paris.^[8]

Family

David's first wife was Shulamith (Toaff). They have two children:

• Ariela Gross, who is an historian and professor of law at the University of Southern California and the mother of his grandchildren, Raphaela and Sophia.
• Elisheva Gross, who received a doctorate in psychology at the University of California at Los Angeles and the mother of his grandchildren, Flora and Talia.

His second wife is Jacquelyn Savani. He has a stepdaughter, Miranda Savani, in Santa Barbara, California.^[9] She was born in North Huntingdon, and is an assistant to the chancellor and executive chancellor at the University of California at Santa Barbara, and media consultant for Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics.^[10]

He has three brothers:

• Larry Gross, who is a professor of communication at the University of Southern California, where he served as director of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism from 2003-2013. He is best known for developing cultivation theory with George Gerbner at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania.
• Samuel R. Gross, who is a professor of law at the University of Michigan and who is best known for his work on wrongful convictions. He founded the National Registry of Exonerations.
• Theodore (Teddy) Gross, a playwright and founder of Common Cents.

• 
  David Gross and his wife in Santa Barbara
• 
  Construction works at Kavli Institute

Honors and awards

• NSF Graduate Fellowship (1963–66)
• Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow (1970–74)
• J. J. Sakurai Prize of the American Physical Society (1986)
• MacArthur Foundation Fellowship Prize (1987)
• Dirac Medal, International Center for Theoretical Physics (1988)
• Oscar Klein Medal, Royal Swedish Academy (2000)
• Harvey Prize, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology (2000)
• High Energy and Particle Physics Prize, European Physical Society (2003)
• Grande Médaille d'Or de l'Académie des sciences, France (2004)
• Nobel Prize in Physics (2004)
• Recipient Golden Plate Award, Academy of Achievement (2005)
• San Carlos Boromero Award, University of San Carlos, Philippines (2008)
• Honorary Doctorate in Science, the University of Cambodia (2010)
• Richard E. Prange Prize, University of Maryland (2013)
• Medal of Honor, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna, Russia (2016)

Selected publications

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: David Gross

Wikimedia Commons has media related to David Gross.

• Nobel citation
• ArXiv papers
• Webpage at the Kavli Institute
• David Gross on INSPIRE-HEP
• BBC synopsis on the award
• Interviews