Kenneth Irwin Gross (14 October 1938 – 10 September 2017) was an American mathematician. Born in

Malden, Massachusetts Malden is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. At the time of the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. Census, the population was 66,263 people. History Malden is a hilly woodland area no ...

in 1938, Gross received from

Brandeis University Brandeis University () is a Private university, private research university in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States. It is located within the Greater Boston area. Founded in 1948 as a nonsectarian, non-sectarian, coeducational university, Bra ...

his bachelor's degree in 1960 and his master's degree in 1962. He received his Ph.D. in 1966 from

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) is a private research university in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1853 by a group of civic leaders and named for George Washington, the university spans 355 acres across its Danforth ...

under Ray Kunze with thesis ''Plancherel Transform of the Nilpotent Part of

G_2

and Some Applications to the Representation Theory of

G_2

''. He was an assistant professor from 1966 to 1968 at

Tulane University The Tulane University of Louisiana (commonly referred to as Tulane University) is a private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by a cohort of medical doctors, it b ...

and an assistant professor from 1968 to 1973 at

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...

. He became in 1973 an associate professor and eventually a full professor at the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the Public university, public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referre ...

before resigning in 1981. From 1981 to 1985 he was the chair of the mathematics department of the

University of Wyoming The University of Wyoming (UW) is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Laramie, Wyoming, United States. It was founded in March 1886, four years before the territory was admitted as the 44th state, ...

. In 1988 Gross became a professor at the

University of Vermont The University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, commonly referred to as the University of Vermont (UVM), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Burlington, Vermont, United States. Foun ...

, where he served as chair of the department of mathematics and statistics from 1988 to 1992. On a leave of absence he was for two years (2003–2005) at

Lesley University Lesley University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. It was founded in 1909 to educate teachers. Originally founded as a women's college, male students were admitted beginning in 2005. History 1909–1998 Th ...

, where he developed the mathematics program. Gross has been a visiting professor at the

University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Irvine, California, United States. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, U ...

, the

University of Utah The University of Utah (the U, U of U, or simply Utah) is a public university, public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. It was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret (Book of Mormon), Deseret by the General A ...

, the Academia Sinica in Taiwan,

Drexel University Drexel University is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Drexel's undergraduate school was founded in 1891 by Anthony Joseph Drexel, Anthony J. Drexel, a financier ...

Macquarie University Macquarie University ( ) is a Public university, public research university in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third university to be established in the Sydney metropolitan area. ...

, and Australia's University of Newcastle. He has twice served as a divisional program director for the

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

. He was the director of the Vermont Mathematics Initiative. He did research on

harmonic analysis Harmonic analysis is a branch of mathematics concerned with investigating the connections between a function and its representation in frequency. The frequency representation is found by using the Fourier transform for functions on unbounded do ...

group representation theory In the mathematical field of representation theory, group representations describe abstract groups in terms of bijective linear transformations of a vector space to itself (i.e. vector space automorphisms); in particular, they can be used to r ...

, analysis on

Lie group In mathematics, a Lie group (pronounced ) is a group (mathematics), group that is also a differentiable manifold, such that group multiplication and taking inverses are both differentiable. A manifold is a space that locally resembles Eucli ...

s and

homogeneous space In mathematics, a homogeneous space is, very informally, a space that looks the same everywhere, as you move through it, with movement given by the action of a group. Homogeneous spaces occur in the theories of Lie groups, algebraic groups and ...

special function Special functions are particular mathematical functions that have more or less established names and notations due to their importance in mathematical analysis, functional analysis, geometry, physics, or other applications. The term is defined by ...

Fourier analysis In mathematics, Fourier analysis () is the study of the way general functions may be represented or approximated by sums of simpler trigonometric functions. Fourier analysis grew from the study of Fourier series, and is named after Joseph Fo ...

, and mathematical applications to physics and

multivariate statistics Multivariate statistics is a subdivision of statistics encompassing the simultaneous observation and analysis of more than one outcome variable, i.e., '' multivariate random variables''. Multivariate statistics concerns understanding the differ ...

. In 1979 he received the

Lester Randolph Ford Award ''The American Mathematical Monthly'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal of mathematics. It was established by Benjamin Finkel in 1894 and is published by Taylor & Francis on behalf of the Mathematical Association of America. It is an exposito ...

. In 1981 he received the

Chauvenet Prize The Chauvenet Prize is an annual award given by the Mathematical Association of America in recognition of an outstanding expository article on a mathematical topic. It consists of a prize of $1,000 and a certificate. The Chauvenet Prize was the ...

from the

Mathematical Association of America The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary edu ...

. In 2008 he received a Deborah and Franklin Haimo Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics. In 2012 he was elected a Fellow of the

American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...

. He died on 10 September 2017 at the age of 78.

Selected publications

*as editor: The mathematics of energy research, SIAM 1984 *with Donald St. P. Richards: *Harmonic Analysis, Encyclopedia of the History and Philosophy of the Mathematical Sciences, Routledge, 1994, vol. 1, pp. 395–418 *as editor with D.S.P. Richards, P. Sally, T. Ton-That ''Representation theory and harmonic analysis'', Contemporary Mathematics, vol. 191, American Mathematical Society 1995 *editor with R. Ewing, C. Martin: The Merging of Disciplines: New Directions in Pure, Applied, and Computational Mathematics, Springer Verlag 1986

External links

Homepage at the U. of Vermont

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gross, Kenneth I 1938 births 2017 deaths 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians American mathematical analysts Brandeis University alumni Washington University in St. Louis alumni University of Vermont faculty People from Malden, Massachusetts Lesley University faculty Fellows of the American Mathematical Society