UP to confer Doctor of Science, honoris causa, on Nobel Laureate
U.P. Newsletter, December 2007 Issue

The University of the Philippines is set to confer the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, upon Prof. David J. Gross, recipient of the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics, on 9 January 2008, 10:00 am., 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 Towards 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 Priace 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 at 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.

He is a fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Gross 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 Elementary Particle Physics; the Harvey Prize from Technion-Israel Institute of Technology; and the Oskar Klein Medal from Stockholm University, among others

BY ARLYN VCD PALISOC ROMUALDO