Description
David J. Gross has been a leading figure in fundamental physics for six decades. In the early 1970s, there was a gap in quantum field theory, our best theory of particles and forces. The theory could not describe or accurately predict the strong nuclear force, which holds the nucleus of the atom together. But in 1973, Gross and his graduate student Frank Wilczek (as well as, independently, David Politzer) solved the mystery. They discovered that the strong force works the opposite way to familiar forces like gravity: it gets weaker as particles approach each other, but stronger as they move apart. This explained why quarks, the particles inside the atomic nucleus, can never escape or be observed in isolation, and it enabled the development of quantum chromodynamics – the theory of the strong force and the final foundation stone of the Standard Model of particle physics.
Watch Michelle Williams and Lily Collins award David Gross the Breakthrough Prize: https://youtu.be/WIzuOO6IoHs
Gross has gone on to make seminal contributions across multiple areas of theoretical physics. For example, he and his collaborators developed a simplified quantum field theory that helped explain how particles can acquire mass; and developed new theoretical approaches attempting to unify all fundamental forces, including gravity, in a single framework known as heterotic string theory.
Alongside his theoretical work, Gross has a longstanding record of leadership in the physics community, in roles including Director of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, and President of the American Physical Society. He has helped establish physics institutes in India, China, and South America. He directed the Jerusalem Winter School in Theoretical Physics and chaired the Solvay Physics Conferences for the last 25 years. In 2025 he was one of the authors of an ambitious 40-year plan for physics on behalf of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. And over the course of his career, he has been a mentor to numerous brilliant students who became leaders themselves, passing on his vision of physics as a collaborative international endeavor.