Robert M. Gray (born November 1, 1943) is an American information theorist, and the Alcatel-Lucent Professor of Electrical Engineering at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...

. He is best known for his contributions to quantization and compression, particularly the development of

vector quantization Vector quantization (VQ) is a classical quantization technique from signal processing that allows the modeling of probability density functions by the distribution of prototype vectors. Developed in the early 1980s by Robert M. Gray, it was ori ...

Awards

In 1980, Gray was elevated to the grade of

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE ...

fellow for contribution to information and communication theory. Gray received the 2008 Claude E. Shannon Award from the

IEEE Information Theory Society The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE ...

, for his fundamental contributions to information theory, particularly in the area of quantization theory. He was also the recipient of the 2008 IEEE Jack S. Kilby Signal Processing Medal, the 1998 Golden Jubilee Award for Technological Innovation from the

, the 1993 IEEE Signal Processing Society Award, and the 1984

IEEE Centennial Medal The IEEE Centennial Medal was a medal minted and awarded in 1984 ''to persons deserving of special recognition for extraordinary achievement'' to celebrate the Centennial of the founding of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (I ...

. Gray received the 2002 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring from the

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

. In 2020 he received both
The Okawa Prize
for his seminal research in information coding theory and data compression, and enormous contributions to the promotion of diversity in engineering education, an
IEEE Aaron D. Wyner Distinguished Service Award
for his outstanding leadership in, and providing long standing, exceptional service, to the Information Theory community. Gray was elected as a member into the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...

in 2007 for contributions to information theory and data compression. He received the IEEE Third Millennium Medal in 2000.

Early life

Born in 1943 in San Diego, Gray grew up in

Coronado, California Coronado (Spanish language, Spanish for "Crowned") is a resort town, resort city in San Diego County, California, United States, across San Diego Bay from downtown San Diego. It was founded in the 1880s and incorporated in 1890. Its population ...

. He was the third child in a family of five children. Gray followed his two older brothers to the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

. He earned his B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from MIT, obtaining his M.S. in 1966. Gray earned his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

in 1969; his Ph.D. adviser was Robert A. Scholtz. He began his career at the US

Naval Ordnance Laboratory The Naval Ordnance Laboratory (NOL) was a facility in the White Oak, Maryland, White Oak area of Montgomery County, Maryland. The location is now used as the headquarters of the Food and Drug Administration, U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Or ...

Books

Gray has written or co-authored a number of technical texts, including: *''Toeplitz and Circulant Matrices'' (1971, revised 2006) *''Probability, Random Processes and Ergodic Properties'' (1988, revised 2007) *''Introduction to Statistical Signal Processing'' (1986, revised 2007) *''Entropy and Information Theory'' (1991, revised 2007) *''Source Coding Theory'' (1990) *''Vector Quantization and Signal Compression'' (1992) Gray is also an amateur historian and has collected together some historical letters from diplomats into books: *''Amy Heard: Letters from the Gilded Age'' (2005) *''Max&Max'' (2005)

Notable professional service

Gray is the Founding Editor of ''Foundations and Trends in Signal Processing''. He has also been Editor-in-Chief of both that publication and the ''IEEE Trans. on Information Theory'' (1981–1983), and served on the IEEE Information Theory Society Board of Governors (1974–1980, 1984–1987) and IEEE Signal Processing Society Board of Governors (1999–2001).

References

External links

Gray's webpageIEEE History Center Interview with Gray (1998)
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gray, Robert M. 1943 births Living people American information theorists MIT School of Engineering alumni USC Viterbi School of Engineering alumni Stanford University School of Engineering faculty Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering IEEE Centennial Medal laureates