Theoretical physicist Graham Ross dies

Mar, 02/11/2021 - 10:55

The British theoretical physicist Graham Ross, Fellow of the Royal Society, Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford and Emeritus Fellow of Wadham College, passed away on 31st October. His death is a great loss to the field of physics.

Graham was a brilliant theoretical particle physicist and one of the leading figures in our field, who made many important breakthroughs. His fertile career includes fundamental contributions in many aspects of theoretical particle physics, such as low-energy signatures from supersymmetric unification, perturbation theory and the parton model in QCD, fermion mass and mixing angle predictions from gauge symmetries, cosmological inflationary models, and many others. Through his well-known book on Grand Unification, Graham has inspired a whole generation of particle theorists to think about the theory landscape in a global manner.

Throughout his career, Ross played an important role for many people at IFIC who have had the opportunity to share many experiences and to whom he has inspired to learn supersymmetry.

Jose Valle, CSIC research professor at IFIC, had the chance to work with him: “Graham played an important role for me personally during my postdoctoral years in the United Kingdom. Indeed, he inspired me to learn supersymmetry as a viable theory of particle physics. His leadership was fundamental in shaping our proposal of supersymmetry as the origin of neutrino mass, through the spontaneous breaking of R-parity, which then becomes the source of neutrino mass generation. Having worked with Graham as a postdoc was a real privilege. I can say that he was not only one of the best physicists I met closely, but also a very nice and a very witty person.”

We at IFIC extend our warm condolences to his Oxford colleagues and his family. All of us will miss you Graham. RIP.