Quotes by David Gross

About David Gross:

David Jonathan Gross is an American particle physicist and string theorist. Along with Frank Wilczek and David Politzer, he was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery of asymptotic freedom. He is the former director and current holder of the Frederick W. Gluck Chair in Theoretical Physics at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics of the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is also a faculty member in the UC Santa Barbara Physics Department and is currently affiliated with the Institute for Quantum Studies at Chapman University in California.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

My childhood in Arlington, Va., a middle class suburb of Washington, was uneventful. Ours was a very intellectual family, and we were encouraged to read at a very early age.

David Gross

From the age of 13, I was attracted to physics and mathematics. My interest in these subjects derived mostly from popular science books that I read avidly.

David Gross

Actually, I was more or less determined to be a theoretical physicist at the age of thirteen.

David Gross

The progress of science is much more muddled than is depicted in most history books. This is especially true of theoretical physics, partly because history is written by the victorious.

David Gross

The Big Bang theory is the idea that if we go back early enough in the history of the universe - and we can do this, of course, by looking at starlight coming to us from billions of years ago - we will see a very hot and dense period where the univer...

David Gross

Reading history, one rarely gets the feeling of the true nature of scientific development, in which the element of farce is as great as the element of triumph.

David Gross

Indeed, the most important product of knowledge is ignorance.

David Gross

I was born in Washington, D.C., on February 19, 1941, the eldest of four sons.

David Gross

My father and mother treated us children as intellectual equals, thus greatly bolstering our self-confidence and our interest in ideas of all kinds.

David Gross

The early 1960s, when I started my graduate studies at UC Berkeley, were a period of experimental supremacy and theoretical impotence.

David Gross

Quantum field theory was originally developed for the treatment of electrodynamics, immediately after the completion of quantum mechanics and the discovery of the Dirac equation.

David Gross

Some wonder whether some day we will arrive at a theory of everything and run out of new problems to solve - much as the effort to explore the earth ran out of new continents to explore.

David Gross

Theorists have wonderful ideas which take years and years to be verified.

David Gross

In order to achieve a true understanding of string theory, some new idea will be required, and most likely, some break with the concepts on which we've traditionally based physical theory.

David Gross

The main reason why people should care about research in fundamental physics is the same reason they care about astronomy and cosmology. People, children, want to know what we're made out of, how it works, and why the universe is the way it is.

David Gross

In the lab, we could not see or physically describe the mathematical objects that we called quarks, which we suspected were the key to unlocking the dynamics of the strong force that binds together the clump of protons and neutrons at the center of t...

David Gross

When I was at Berkeley, the framework of quantum field theory could calculate the dynamics of electromagnetism. It could roughly describe the motion of the weak nuclear force, radiation. But it hit a brick wall with the strong interaction, the bindin...

David Gross

Since the founding of quantum mechanics in the 1920s, theoretical physics had nurtured an extremely radical tradition.

David Gross

I had set out to disprove quantum field theory - and the opposite occurred! I was shocked.

David Gross

From the age of 13, I was attracted to physics and mathematics. My interest in these subjects derived mostly from popular science books that I read avidly. Early on I was fascinated by theoretical physics and determined to become a theoretical physic...

David Gross

Author Bio

  • NameDavid Gross
  • DescriptionAmerican particle physicist and string theorist
  • AliasesDavid Jonathan Gross
  • BornFebruary 19, 1941
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionPhysicist
  • AwardsNobel Prize In Physics; Dirac Prize; MacArthur Fellows Program; Harvey Prize