By Laurie Gertner
Professor Gross Winning The Great Teacher Award
On October 27, the Society of Columbia Graduates presented its annual Great Teacher Award to Professor Gross of the Computer Science Department and the late Professor Holtzman of the Biology Department. The organization, founded in 1909, has annually presented this award since 1949. Every year, it honors a professor in the School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) and a Professor in Columbia College. In addition to receiving a small sculpture of the Columbia Lion, each recipient has his or her name imprinted on a plaque in Butler Library.
Professor Holtzman earned his BA in 1959, his MA in 1961, and his Ph.D. in 1964 at Columbia. He joined Columbia's biology department in 1966. His research focuses on the inner workings of the cell, including protein transport and the breakdown of harmful substances by lysosomes. He also wrote a book on cells and organelles, which is still used today. The award was presented to Professor Holtzman's son and wife. In a moving speech by Professor Pollack, Holtzman was called the "Complete Columbia Professor." He was always available to students and well known for teaching Cell Biology (W3041). In addition, he helped to institute the Rabi Scholar program, which recruits some of the best science undergraduates to Columbia. According to Professor Pollack, "a great teacher must be rich and give away everything he has." Professor Gross earned his BS at MIT in 1964, his MA in 1966, and his Ph.D. in 1968 at Dartmouth College. He has been a professor at Columbia since 1969. His research focuses on algorithms exploiting the use of parallel computing. He is well known for being the demanding teacher of Discrete Mathematics (Comp. Sci W3203).
Professor Gross's speech was the perfect transition after the emotional presentation to Professor Holtzman's family. He started by asking the audience a fast way to multiply two very large numbers. His class focuses on the difference between a number and a representation. Professor Gross is particularly concerned with computer literacy and keeping graduates up to date with new scientific developments. Next semester he will teach Graph Theory (Comp. Sci.W 4203).
From pg. 2+ of The Moment, 7 Dec. 1994