A Short Tribute to Benedict Gross

We lost Harvard professor emeritus Benedict Gross late last year and I thought it would be worth remembering the ways he impacted my life despite my never meeting him.

The first impact is pictured above. After I dropped out of high school due to chronic illness, I began to self-teach myself mathematics with resources online. I quickly found video recordings of Dick Gross’s Math e222 introduction to algebra. These were originally recorded for a Harvard extension school course, but the video lectures have become something of a cult classic online. They served as my first introduction to abstract algebra and certainly got me hooked. He followed Mike Artin’s book and spent some time discussing quadratic number fields towards the end of the course. Even in crisp 240p, the videos still hold up.

The second impact was more direct and at a similar time. My father had met Dick Gross several times and reached out to him to ask his advice about what I should do. I had a unique situation. I was out of school due to severe chronic illness and could hardly leave the house. However, I was also well beyond my years in terms of mathematical maturity. He introduced me to Joe Harris who became a helpful advisor and I would begin taking course at Harvard unofficially shortly after.

Over a decade after all of this, it is hard to understate these impacts. Taking courses unofficially, and then officially, at Harvard is an enormous opportunity for anyone, but it was also the right opportunity for me at the time. It was also the catalyst that led me to do the same at MIT computer science. The more common story for people who become severely ill with ME/CFS at a young age is to struggle for a long time just finishing a high school education and often rarely getting far past that.

Now, I find myself in a surprisingly similar condition as back then: profoundly chronically ill. I have to rest the vast majority of my time and I very rarely leave the house. If I have some time or extra energy, maybe I will take some time to learn about his mathematical contributions. I am not well-versed in algebraic number theory, but it is not beyond me. A decade on, Dick Gross may continue to fascinate me yet.