Gross, professor of chemistry in Arts & Sciences and of immunology and pathology and of medicine in the School of Medicine, is being recognized for distinguished contributions to physical-organic, analytical, environmental and biophysical chemistry by developing and applying mass-spectrometry methods.
Gross’ current research focuses mainly on the development of mass spectrometry in biophysics, specifically to probe protein-ligand interaction interfaces, affinities and folding/unfolding. The work includes both instrument and method development and application to important proteins and protein complexes.
Gross, who has worked in mass spectrometry for nearly 50 years, is considered one of the most productive and highly cited mass spectrometrists in history.
He began his career at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he was distinguished professor of chemistry and director of a National Science Foundation Center for Mass Spectrometry.
In 1994, he joined the faculty at Washington University, where he is director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Mass Spectrometry Research Resource.
He has written more than 600 publications in mass spectrometry and received numerous awards, including the American Chemical Society (ACS) Field and Franklin medal for excellence in mass spectrometry in 1999, the ACS Midwest Award in 2002, the J.J. Thomson Medal in 2006, and, most recently, the 2018 ACS Award in Analytical Chemistry. He was founding editor-in-chief for the Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry from 1990-2015.
Gross graduated cum laude with a degree in chemistry from St. John’s University and later earned his doctorate in organic chemistry from the University of Minnesota. He completed one year of postdoctoral research at the University of Pennsylvania and another year at Purdue University.
