Claudius Gros

Claudius Gros (born February 18, 1961 in Mainz, Germany) is a German physicist.

Finishing his studies in physics 1985 at the ETH Zürich with a thesis on heavy Fermions, Gros continued for a PhD in theoretical solid-state physics. Using projected wave functions, as introduced originally by Martin Gutzwiller, he and his advisor, T.M. Rice, were able to predict d-wave superconductivity for high-temperature superconductors.

From 1988-1900 Gros worked with Steven M. Girvin and Allan H. MacDonald at the Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. After an stay at Dortmund University he joined in 1999 the Saarland University as a Professor of theoretical physics, changing 2005 to the Goethe university Frankfurt. Gros is now working in complex systems theory, studying in particular complex adaptive systems relevant to the neurosciences. His lecture course on the subject has seen four editions. In 2016 Gros published a novel.

In 2016 Gros studied the feasibility of a low-cost interstellar mission, aiming to establish a biosphere of unicellular organisms on otherwise only transiently habitable exoplanets, fast-forwarding evolution potentially by several billion years. The long mission duration would imply, according to Gros, that the Genesis Project would not have any tangible benefit for humanity. The initial acceleration could be achieved by laser propulsion, akin to the invisioned by the Breakthrough Starshot project, with a passive deceleration at the target using magnetic sails. An on-bord miniaturized gene laboratory would allow to synthesize the microbes.

The precambrian biosphere established by the Genesis probe would evolve subsequently on its own, potentially to compex lifeforms. The concepts of the Genesis Project carries a series of fundamental ethical and philosophical aspects, which have been discussed in the media.