UP to confer honorary degree on Nobel laureate

The University of the Philippines is set to confer the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, on Prof. David Gross, recipient of the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics, on Jan. 9, 2008 at the UP Film Institute.

Following the conferment, Gross will deliver a lecture on the future of fundamental physics.

The lecture is part of the ASEAN-wide “Bridges — Dialogues Toward a Culture of Peace” program of the International Peace Foundation.

UP is co-hosting the event as part of its Centennial Lecture Series.

Along with Dr. Hugh David Politzer and Dr. Frank Wilczek, Gross received the Nobel Prize for discovering asymptotic freedom in the theory of strong interaction — one of the four fundamental forces of nature.

Their discovery led to the establishment of quantum chromodynamics as the accurate theory of strong nuclear force.

Gross is the current director of the Kavli Institute of Theoretical Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara and also holds the Frederic W. Gluck Chair in Theoretical Physics in the same university.

He earned his Bachelor of Science degree at the Hebrew University, where he majored in physics and mathematics. He then took his graduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley.

Gross is a fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

He is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences and has been the recipient of awards such as the Grande Medaille D’Or from the Academie des Sciences; the European Physical Society Prize in Elementary Particle Physics; the Harvey Prize from Technion-Israel Institute of Technology; and the Oskar Klein Medal from Stockholm University.