Benedict Gross

Biography

Early life and education

Benedict Hyman Gross was born on June 22, 1950, in South Orange, New Jersey, to Joel Gross and Terry Gross (née Stavisky). His father, Joel Gross, was born on a farm in Jersey City to Austrian immigrants who had moved to the United States as teenagers. His mother, Terry Gross, was born in New York City to Polish immigrants who had also moved to the United States as teenagers.

Gross and his family moved to Santa Monica, California, at the age of 5, before returning to New Jersey during second grade. He attended West Orange High School, but transferred out after his freshman year. Gross graduated from The Pingry School, a leading independent school in New Jersey, in 1967 as the valedictorian.

Gross initially studied physics at Harvard University, deterred from mathematics because he thought that his classmates were better prepared than he was, but switched to mathematics in his sophomore year after enjoying the Math 55 course that was taught by Andrew M. Gleason. In 1971, he graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard University.

Gross studied music in Africa and Asia, and then moved to Oxford University as a Marshall Scholar where he studied history, sociology, and mathematics. He received a M.Sc. from Oxford University in 1974, and then returned to Harvard, where he received his Ph.D. in Mathematics in 1978 under the supervision of John Tate.

Career

Gross was an assistant professor at Princeton University from 1978 to 1982, a maître de conférences at Université de Paris VII in 1980, and an associate professor at Brown University from 1982 to 1985. Gross became a tenured professor at Harvard University in 1985 and became the George Vasmer Leverett Professor at Harvard University in 1988. He served as Dean of Undergraduate Education from 2002 to 2003 and as the Dean of Harvard College from 2003 to 2007. {{Multiref2

Gross was the mathematical consultant for the 1980 film It's My Turn containing the scene in which actress Jill Clayburgh, portraying a mathematics professor, impeccably proves the snake lemma. Gross was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Institute for Advanced Study from 2012 to 2017 and the executive committee of the International Mathematical Union from 2015 to 2019. He joined the Board of Directors of Scripps Research in 2018.

Research

Gross's work spanned topics in number theory, algebraic geometry, modular forms, and group representations. His work with Don Zagier on the Gross–Zagier formula in 1986 has been influential in modern number theory. It describes the height of Heegner points in terms of a derivative of the L-function of elliptic curves and led to breakthroughs on the class number problem of Carl Friedrich Gauss.

Awards and honors

Gross received a MacArthur Fellowship in 1986. Gross, Zagier, and Dorian M. Goldfeld won the Cole Prize of the American Mathematical Society in 1987 for their work on the Gross–Zagier formula and the Gauss class number problem. In 2012, he became a fellow of the American Mathematical Society.

Gross was elected as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1992 and as a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2004. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2017.

Personal life

Gross first met his wife Jill P. Mesirov at a party hosted by Robert Langlands. They married in 1982 and had two sons.

Gross was diagnosed with testicular cancer when he was an undergraduate at Harvard University, a likely effect of his mother having been prescribed diethylstilbestrol during pregnancy to prevent miscarriage. He received radiation therapy to prevent recurrence and had several major abdominal surgeries to deal with issues caused by this radiation over his lifetime. He died on December 19, 2025, after a long illness.

Major publications

References

References

1. "Benedict Gross".
2. [http://www.math.harvard.edu/~gross/CV09.pdf Curriculum vitae] from Gross's web site at Harvard, retrieved April 21, 2010.
3. Kirby, Rob. (2023). "Benedict H. Gross: Becoming a mathematician".
4. {{MathGenealogy
5. (October 9, 2018). "Noted mathematician Benedict Gross joins Scripps Research Board of Directors".
6. (January 12, 2009). "It's My Turn (1980) Snake Lemma".
7. "Benedict Gross – Miscellaneous Crew". IMDb.com.
8. (October 23, 2003). "Lights, Camera and Algebraic Topology".
9. (June 11, 2012). "Benedict H. Gross Appointed to Institute for Advanced Study Board of Trustee". [[Institute for Advanced Study]].
10. "Report for the Academic Year 2016–2017". [[Institute for Advanced Study]].
11. (2023). "Benedict Gross CV".
12. (January 1, 2005). "Benedict H. Gross".
13. (1986). "Heegner points and derivatives of L-series". [[Inventiones Mathematicae]].
14. [https://www.ams.org/profession/prizes-awards/ams-prizes/cole-prize-number-theory Frank Nelson Cole Prize in Number Theory], AMS, retrieved April 21, 2010.
15. (1986). "Heegner points and derivatives ofL-series". Inventiones Mathematicae.
16. [https://www.ams.org/profession/fellows-list List of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society], retrieved January 19, 2013.
17. [http://www.amacad.org/members/class_section.pdf List of Active Members by Classes] {{Webarchive. link. (May 6, 2005 , [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]], retrieved April 21, 2010.)
18. [http://www.scienceblog.com/community/older/2004/8/20047575.shtml National Academies news: 72 new members chosen by academy] {{Webarchive. link. (March 3, 2016 , The National Academies, April 2004, retrieved April 21, 2010.)
19. "American Philosophical Society: Newly Elected – April 2017".
20. (January 27, 2026). "In Memoriam: Benedict Gross". UC San Diego.
21. (January 16, 2026). "In Memory of Professor Benedict Gross".
22. (January 26, 2026). "Former College Dean Benedict H. Gross Remembered as 'One of the Kindest People in All of Academia'". [[The Harvard Crimson]].
23. (January 23, 2026). "Dick Gross, number theorist and former College dean, dies at 75". The Harvard Gazette.