Benedict H. Gross

Mathematics Class of 1986
location icon Location
Cambridge, Massachusetts
age iconAge
36 at time of award

About Benedict's Work

Benedict Gross is a mathematician who has contributed decisively to number theory, algebraic geometry, modular forms and group representations. 

Gross has investigated the special values and derivatives of L-series modular forms and has helped to obtain a limit formula using canonical heights on curves.  This limit formula offers a new approach to the classical problem of finding the solutions of cubic equations.  His work also has led to the resolution of a problem on the class numbers of quadratic fields, which dates back to the nineteenth-century mathematician, Karl Friedrich Gauss.

Biography

In addition to his numerous journal publications, Gross is the author of Arithmetic on Elliptical Curves with Complex Multiplication (2000) and co-author of The Magic of Numbers (2004), based on his course in quantitative reasoning, which provides a readable introduction to the patterns that emerge in number behavior and the often surprising applications of those patterns.  Gross has held teaching appointments at Princeton University (1978-1982), Brown University (1982-1985) and since 1985, at Harvard University.  He is the George Vassmer Leverett Professor of Mathematics at Harvard University and became the Dean of Harvard College in 2003. 

Gross received a B.A. (1971) and a Ph.D. (1978) from Harvard University, and a M.Sc. (1974) from the University of Oxford.

Last updated January 1, 2005.

Published on August 1, 1986

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