David Jonathan Gross (; 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.
== 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.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.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."In
2003, Gross was one of 22 Nobel Laureates
who signed the Humanist Manifesto. Gross is
an atheist.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.
== 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. 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.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.
== 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 ==
Nobel citation
ArXiv papers
Webpage at the Kavli Institute
David Gross on INSPIRE-HEP
BBC synopsis on the award
Interviews
