David Gross

This article is about the physicist. For the diplomat, see David A. Gross.
David Gross
Born David Jonathan Gross
(1941-02-19) February 19, 1941
Washington, D.C., U.S.
Residence United States
Nationality American
Fields Physics, String Theory
Institutions University of California, Santa Barbara
Harvard University
Princeton University
Alma mater Hebrew University
University of California, Berkeley
Doctoral advisor Geoffrey Chew
Doctoral students Frank Wilczek
Edward Witten
William E. Caswell
Rajesh Gopakumar
Nikita Nekrasov[1]
Known for Asymptotic freedom
Heterotic string
Notable awards Dirac Medal (1988)
Harvey Prize (2000)
Nobel Prize in Physics (2004)
Spouse Shulamith Toaff Gross (divorced; 2 children)
Jacquelyn Savani

Signature

David Jonathan Gross (born February 19, 1941) is an American particle 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. He is the former director and current holder of the Frederick W. Gluck Chair in Theoretical Physics at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics of the University of California, Santa Barbara. 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 the Foreign Member of Chinese Academy of Sciences.[2]

Biography

He was born to a Jewish family in Washington, D.C. in February 19, 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 Professor at Princeton University until 1997. He was the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 1987, the Dirac Medal in 1988 and the Harvey Prize in 2000.[3]

In 1973, Gross, working with his first graduate student, Frank Wilczek, at Princeton University, discovered asymptotic freedom, which holds that 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. Asymptotic freedom, independently discovered by Politzer, was important for the development of quantum chromodynamics.

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

In 2003, Gross was one of 22 Nobel Laureates who signed the Humanist Manifesto.[5]

Gross's hobby is fishing. He once caught a two and three quarters pound bluegill in Florida's Crystal Lake, narrowly missing that state's record.

Honors and awards

Publication list

Journal Articles:

Technical Reports:

References

  1. ↑ David Jonathan Gross at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  2. ↑ "Foreign Members---Academic Divisions of the Chinese Academy of Sciences". english.casad.cas.cn. Retrieved 2016-02-09.
  3. 1 2 "Autobiography". nobelprize.org. Retrieved 23 Apr 2013.
  4. ↑ String Theory, at 20, Explains It All (or Not). NY Times (2004-12-07)
  5. ↑ "Notable Signers". Humanism and Its Aspirations. American Humanist Association. Retrieved October 2, 2012.

External links

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