Dominik Gross

Dominik Gross is a German bioethicist and historian of medicine. He is Professor and Director of the Institute of History, Theory and Ethics in Medicine at the RWTH Aachen University, Germany.

Gross studied dentistry and medicine at Saarland University and the University of Ulm (State Exam in Dentistry 1989, Dr. med. dent. 1991; State Medical Exam 2000, Dr. med. 2001) as well as history, philosophy and archeology at Saarland University (M.A. 1990, Dr. phil. 1993). After completing his habilitation thesis in history, theory and ethics of medicine at the University of Wurzburg, Bavaria, he worked as a lecturer at the Universities of Wurzburg, Ratisbon and Ulm. In June 2005 he was appointed full professor of History, Theory and Ethics in Medicine at the RWTH Aachen. Since October 2005 he is director of the Institute of History, Theory and Ethics in Medicine of the same university. Besides, he is visiting professor at the University of Zurich, Switzerland.

He is a member of the Ethics Group of the IDEA League and editor of different book series at Lit Publishers, Muenster, London, New York, (“Anthropina”, “Medizin und Nationalsozialismus”) and at Campus, Frankfurt, New York (“Todesbilder”).

Gross is the author of more than 200 articles and books. He is member of the advisory board of several bioethical and medicohistorian journals (e.g. “Medicine Studies. International Journal for the History, Philosophy and Ethics of Medicine & Allied Sciences”, Springer; “Sudhoffs Archiv – Zeitschrift für Wissenschaftsgeschichte”, Franz Steiner; “Ethik in der Medizin”, Springer).

Gross’ work has won several awards and prizes, including a research Fellowship of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (1996–1998), the Scientific Award of the Maiwald-Foundation (1999), the Joseph Schneider Award of the Medical Faculty of the University of Wurzburg (2002) and the Scultetus Award of the Scultetus Society in Ulm (2004).

Gross’ main fields of research are professionalization in healthcare, medicine in the 20th century, historical thanatology, medical technology assessment, stigmatization in medicine, dental ethics, neuroethics and chimeras.

In 2010, he was appointed as a member of the „National AIDS Advisory Council“ („Nationaler AIDS-Beirat“), an official advisory board of the Federal Ministry of Health.