He is credited with the discovery of distonic ions, chemical species containing a radical and an ionic site on different atoms of the same molecule.
[3] With this method, he and his coworkers found this highly toxic compound in the tissue of veterans of the Vietnam War,[4] a controversial observation that was later validated by scientists at the Center for Disease Control.
[9] In the late 1970s, Charles Wilkins and Gross built the second Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometer and were the first to use it for analytical applications.
Notable were the demonstrations of GC/MS,[10] laser desorption,[11] gas pulsing,[12] multiphoton ionization,[13] and the development of calibration law for accurate mass measurement.
[15] Gross currently works on structural proteomics where he uses mass spectrometry in developing and implementing new approaches to protein footprinting, hydrogen/deuterium exchange, crosslinking and native MS.