gross received his b.a. from saint john's university, minnesota (1962), and his ph.d. from the university of minnesota (1966). he was a postdoctoral fellow at the university of pennsylvania (er thornton) and purdue university (fw mclafferty). for his research contributions, he received the field and franklin award, american chemical society (1999), the midwest award, acs (2002), and the jj thomson medal, int'l foundation for mass spectrometry (2006). he is co-editor of the encyclopedia of mass spectrometry and editor-in-chief of the journal of the american society for mass spectrometry since its founding in 1990. prior to that appointment, he served as editor of mass spectrometry reviews.