Benedict Hyman Gross is an American mathematician who is a professor at the University of California San Diego,^[1] the George Vasmer Leverett Professor of Mathematics Emeritus at Harvard University, and former Dean of Harvard College.^[2]

He is known for his work in number theory, particularly the Gross–Zagier theorem on L-functions of elliptic curves, which he researched with Don Zagier.

Education and Professional career

Gross graduated from The Pingry School, a leading independent school in New Jersey, in 1967 as the valedictorian. In 1971, he graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard University. He then received an M.Sc. from Oxford University as a Marshall Scholar in 1974 before returning to Harvard and completing his Ph.D. in 1978, under John Tate.^[2][3]

After holding faculty positions at Princeton University and Brown University, Gross became a tenured professor at Harvard in 1985^[2] and remained there subsequently, as Dean of Harvard College from 2003 to 2007.^[4]

Benedict Gross was the mathematical consultant for the 1980 film It's My Turn containing the famous scene^[5] in which actress Jill Clayburgh, portraying a mathematics professor, impeccably proves the snake lemma.^{[6][better source needed]}

Awards and honors

Gross is a 1986 MacArthur Fellow.^{[citation needed]}

Gross, Zagier, and Dorian M. Goldfeld won the Cole Prize of the American Mathematical Society in 1987 for their work on the Gross–Zagier theorem.^[7] In 2012 he became a fellow of the American Mathematical Society.^[8]

Gross was elected as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1992^[9] and as a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2004.^[10] He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2017.^[11]

He was named as a Harvard University Professor from 2011 to 2016 for his distinguished scholarship and professional work.^{[citation needed]}

Major publications

• Gross, Benedict H.; Harris, Joe. Real algebraic curves. Ann. Sci. École Norm. Sup. (4) 14 (1981), no. 2, 157–182.
• Gross, Benedict H. Heights and the special values of L-series. Number theory (Montreal, Que., 1985), 115–187, CMS Conf. Proc., 7, Amer. Math. Soc., Providence, RI, 1987.
• Gross, Benedict H. A tameness criterion for Galois representations associated to modular forms (mod p). Duke Math. J. 61 (1990), no. 2, 445–517.
• Gross, Benedict H.; Prasad, Dipendra. On the decomposition of a representation of SOn when restricted to SOn−1. Canad. J. Math. 44 (1992), no. 5, 974–1002.
• Gross, Benedict H.; Zagier, Don B. Heegner points and derivatives of L-series. Invent. Math. 84 (1986), no. 2, 225–320.
• Gross, B.; Kohnen, W.; Zagier, D. Heegner points and derivatives of L-series. II. Math. Ann. 278 (1987), no. 1-4, 497–562.
• Gan, Wee Teck; Gross, Benedict H.; Prasad, Dipendra. Symplectic local root numbers, central critical L values, and restriction problems in the representation theory of classical groups. Sur les conjectures de Gross et Prasad. I. Astérisque No. 346 (2012), 1–109. ISBN 978-2-85629-348-5