Department of Mathematics
Boston College
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467-3806
(617) 552-3758
gross@bc.edu
Position:
Associate Professor of Mathematics
This web page contains my educational history, employment history, information about my books, some publications, information about courses that I’m teaching this year (2023–2024), information about Ideas in Math: The Grammar of Numbers, a course that Michael Connolly and I taught in the spring of 1998, and other useful stuff.
Education
A.B., 1979, Princeton
University.
Ph.D., 1986, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology. Thesis advisor:
Joseph Silverman.
Position:
Associate Professor of Mathematics
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Teaching Assistant | 1979–1983 | Northeastern University | Instructor | 1983 |
| Boston College | Instructor | 1984–6 |
| Boston College | Assistant Professor | 1986–93 |
| Boston College | Associate Professor | 1993–present |
| Boston University | Visiting Associate Professor | 1993–4, 2000–1 |
Elliptic Tales: Curves, Counting, and Number Theory, with Avner Ash. Princeton University Press, 2012. Reviews and errata.
Fearless Symmetry: Exposing the Hidden Patterns of Numbers, with Avner Ash. Princeton University Press, 2006, paperback 2009. Reviews and errata.
Getting Started with Mathematica®, with C-K. Cheung, G.E. Keough, and Charles Landraitis. Wiley, 2005.
Contributor to Standard Mathematical Tables and Formulæ, Thirty-first Edition, Edited by Daniel Zwillinger, CRC Press, 2003, New York.
Contributor to Standard Mathematical Tables and Formulæ, Thirtieth Edition, Edited by Daniel Zwillinger, CRC Press, 1996, New York.
“Lattice Packing by Spheres and Eutactic Forms,” with Avner Ash, Experimental Mathematics, 31:1, 2022, 302–308. Click here for PDF format.
“Frequencies of Successive Pairs of Prime Residues,” with Avner Ash, Laura Beltis, and Warren Sinnott, Experimental Mathematics, 20:4, 2011, 400–411. Click here for PDF format.
“Frequences of Successive Tuples of Frobenius Classes,” with Avner Ash and Brandon Bate, Experimental Mathematics, 18:1, 2009, 55–63. Click here for PDF format.
“Prime Specialization in Genus 0,” with Brian Conrad and Keith Conrad, Transactions of the American Mathematical Society, 360:6, June, 2008, 2867–2908. Click here for PDF format.
“Generalized Non-abelian Reciprocity Laws: A Context for Wiles’s Proof,” with Avner Ash, Bulletin of the London Mathematical Society, 32, 2000: 385–397. Click here for PDF format.
“A Generalization of a Conjecture of Hardy and Littlewood to Algebraic Number Fields,” with John H. Smith, Rocky Mountain Journal of Mathematics, 30:1, Spring, 2000: 195–215. Click here for PDF format.
“S-Integer Points on Elliptic Curves,” with Joseph Silverman, Pacific Journal of Mathematics, 167, 1995: 263–288. Click here for PDF format.
“On the Integrality of Some Galois Representations,” Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society, 123:1, January, 1995: 299–301. Click here for PDF format.
“A Note on Roth’s Theorem,” Journal of Number Theory, 36:1, September, 1990: 127–132. Click here for PDF format.
“Antigenesis: A Cascade Theoretical Analysis of the Size Distribution of Antigen-Antibody Complexes: Applications of graphs in chemistry and physics,” with John Kennedy, Lou Quintas, and Martin Yarmush. Discrete Applied Mathematics, 19:1–3, 1988: 177–194.
MATH4426: Probability
Fall
Prerequisite: MATH2202 or MATH2203, Multivariable Calculus.
This course provides a general introduction to modern probability
theory. Topics include probability spaces, discrete and continuous
random variables, joint and conditional distributions, mathematical
expectation, the central limit theorem, and the weak and strong laws
of large numbers.
Class home page.
MATH4412: Partial Differential Equations
Spring
Prerequisite: MATH4410, Ordinary Differential Equations
This course investigates the classical partial differential equations
of applied mathematics (diffusion, Laplace/Poisson and wave) and their
methods of solution (separation of variables, Fourier series,
transforms, Green’s functions and eigenvalue applications).
Additional topics will be included as time permits.
Class home page.
MATH4475: History of Mathematics
Spring
Prerequisite: MATH3310 and MATH3320, one of which may be
taken concurrently.
This course studies the development of mathematical thought, from
ancient times to the twentieth century. Naturally, the subject is much
too large for a single semester, so we will concentrate on the major
themes and on the contributions of the greatest mathematicians. The
emphasis in the course will be on the mathematics. Students will
follow the historical arguments and work with the tools and techniques
of the period being studied.
Class home page.
In the spring of 1998, Michael Connolly (the chair of the
Department of Slavic and Eastern European Languages) and I taught
a course called: MT007/SL266 Ideas in Mathematics: The
Grammar of Numbers. It had no prerequisites, and was
a core mathematics course for non-math and non-science majors. This
one-semester course studied the role of numbers, number names, and
number symbols in various cultures. Topics include number mysticism,
symbolism in religion and the arts, elementary number theory, number
representations, and calendars.
Texts: The Magic Numbers of Doctor Matrix, Martin Gardner.
Number Words and Number Symbols: A Cultural History of
Numbers, Karl Menninger.
Click here for more
information.